KALADAN NEWS
Dated:
Rice Crisis Leaves Many at Risk of Hungers in
Maungdaw,
June 17: Rice crisis leaves many
at risk of hungers across Maungdaw Township of Arakan State,
People
from the region expressed about their untold sufferings for food, water and
other commodities, while crisis of rice become one of the most difficulties of
their lives, as they are now facing the problems of viral fever, diarrhoea, dysentery and some other diseases, he said.
“Now,
we are about to dies as there is no availability of enough rice in the region.
Very few landlords have preserved rice. They want to use it for themselves.
Government imposed restriction on transferring food stocks from one place to
other, especially from southern part of Arakan to
northern part such as to Buthidaung to Maungdaw and etc.”, said, an elderly man from Maungdaw, preferring anonymity.
“Besides,
price of rice is unusually hike up to Kyat 320 to 350 for a kilogram in local
market that sold Kyat 200 to 250 in previous weeks, while people could earn
about Kyat 1,000 in a day, if they can work. It is the beginning of the rainy
season. I don’t know that what we would face in whole season, if the government
continue its restriction and does not release rice from stock,” he further
said.
When
asked about the roles of Village Peace & Development Council (VPDC)
officials about public suffering and the representation of rice crisis to
government, a Rohingya elite said, “They are very
busy in collecting money from people for Nasaka or
military, showing various logics. We are not only facing the rice crisis but
also the safe drinking water that has been prevailing the region due to
abnormal fall in ground water level causing untold suffering to common people.”
“We
have no more tube-wells in our village. So, we use ponds and wells for drinking
water that bring different kinds of germs and cause diseases, as we don’t get
adequate health facilities or treatment from any quarters”, said, a villager
who came to
Meanwhile,
miseries are increasing to the people of northern Arakan
after reaching them of rice crisis, which may cause to a kind of unexpected
problems in future.
For
the development of the agriculture sector, the Government is implementing the
plans for self-sufficiency in rice and edible oil and for exporting beans and
pulses and industrial crops. Out of the 42 million acres of arable land in the
nation, the total of sown acreage is only 25 million, report mentioned.
The
generals in the SPDC are confidently saying that they have enough rice stocks
to feed the country and that there was no reason for rice prices to be soaring
unreasonably. But the price of best quality strains of unhusked
aromatic rice which was selling around 94,000 kyat per 100 baskets in September
last year is now being sold at around 200,000 kyat. The price of lower grade unhusked rice usually consumed by low-income earners has
also doubled in the past 12 months, reports NCGUB News Desk,
For
further information, please contact at:
Tel:
+880-11 227 138
E-mail:
[email protected]
Web:
www.kaladanpress.org / www.bnionline.net