Govt moves to boost emergency food supply

The government decided Monday to increase emergency supply of food through imports of rice and wheat. The decision was taken in a meeting of the food monitoring committee held at the Finance Ministry. After the meeting, the food monitoring committee's Chairman and Food Adviser Tapan Chowdhury told the news agency, "The government has a stock of 0.5 million (5.0 lakh) tonnes of food grains. Besides the ongoing collection from local markets, we have decided to import 0.25 million (2.5 lakh) tonnes of rice and 0.138 million (1.38 lakh) tonnes of wheat." Although the formalities of international tenders take up 42 to 45 days, local tenders can, the adviser said, make it happen in 21 days. "There won't be any chance of running short of food grains in case flood or other natural calamities set in," Chowdhury said. —bdnews24.com