Food security in several parts of the Northeast is a real problem right now. Hunger is at the very door of thousands of people in Assam and neighbouring states.

Five days ago, local newspapers were warning their administrations that a massive scarcity of food grains is likely to hit Mizoram, Tripura and South Assam.

Surface links to south Assam’s Barak Valley and Dima Hasao district,  and to  Tripura and Mizoram were cut off due to flash floods and landslides triggered by incessant downpours. Roads, and  tracks, were washed away at multiple locations in Assam and Meghalaya.

In Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district landslides cut off-road communication to Barak Valley parts of Mizoram and Tripura.

Landslides in different locations in the Dima Hasao district disrupted road as well as rail connectivity.

Landslides and waterlogging on raiway tracks in the Lumding-Badarpur section have snapped train communication to Barak Valley, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram.

A tunnel on the National Highway 54 in Maibong, Maibong, located at distance of 45 km from Haflong, is also clogged with debris.

This has caused an emergency situation in South Assam besides parts of Mizoram and Tripura and there is an urgent need for food grains.

The Food Corporation of India appears to be caught up in its own world of red-tape. Locals complain that the FCI isn’t taking proactive steps for an immediate supply of food grains. Media reports from the region say although FCI has floated tenders for supplying food grains from multiple depots in Assam, nothing has been finalized yet.

Local media has also noted that the food grain supply  to South Assam, Tripura and Mizoram has been ‘sluggish’ due to Food Corporation of India (FCI)’s alleged lack of urgency in addressing the issue of food shortage.

“The FCI has not realized the emergency situation caused in South Assam as well as in parts of Mizoram and Tripura. We have noticed that the FCI has not taken proactive steps for supplying food grains meant for poor beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY),” said a local resident of Cachar to the reporter from a local news site.

The FCI is currently supplying food only from the Changsari depot located on Guwahati outskirts.it is learnt.

“FCI should supply food grains in a war footing manner from multiple depots of Assam. The residents of the region will suffer acute food shortages,” said a source.

Due to the laid-back attitude of authorities of FCI, the South Assam as well as parts of neighbouring Tripura and Mizoram would run out of basic food, say locals. The local village communities around the sites of the natural disasters are already facing food shortages.

  Assam, Food Corporation of India, food security, Meghalaya, naked truth, National Food Security Act, Northeast, Tripura