Kantipur Media Group, KL Dugar Group and Summit Air delivered 34 quintals of rice to Humla in Karnali Province on Wednesday to alleviate the rice shortage faced by the residents of Humla.

Ward Chairman of Namkha Rural Municipality-6 Paljor Tamang is currently in Kathmandu to highlight the shortage of rice faced by Humla residents due to a disruption in rice supply.

Kantipur Daily, the Post’s sister newspaper, on Wednesday had written extensively on the shortage of rice in Humla following which KMG extended help to provide the villagers with rice stock while Summit Air arranged for the stock to be transported to the shortage-hit district free of cost.

The Karnali provincial bureau chief of Kantipur Publications, Krishna Prasad Gautam, handed over the consignment to the Chief District Officer of Humla Ganesh Acharya.

Pradeep Kumar Thaded, general manager of the Nepalgunj branch of KL Dugar Group, said the company provided immediate relief to the shortage-hit villages.

“Everybody should be able to feed themselves. It’s a basic human right,” he said. “It is our social responsibility to extend help where we can.”

The state should be more responsible towards such issues, he said.

Manoj Karki, general manager of Summit Air, said the government must take immediate and transparent measures to avoid a shortage of essentials in areas where there is no road connectivity.

“It is the government’s responsibility to ensure there is no shortage of essentials in remote areas. Since the government failed to take measures to address the food shortage in Humla, we stepped in.”

The three organisations coordinated to deliver 136 rice bags each weighing 25kg to Humla.

“Humla residents are facing a shortage of rice grains but the situation is not that of starvation,” said CDO Acharya. “All three levels of governments are looking into the issue. Limi has been worst-hit by the shortage so we will make arrangements to transport the rice there immediately.”

According to him, the Simkot branch of Food Management and Trading Company Limited has around 150 quintals of rice in stock. Because of the shortage, the company has been releasing rice only for ceremonial purposes such as birth and death rituals.

According to CDO Acharya, the Chinese government had sent 466 quintals of rice to Namkha Rural Municipality, out of which five quintals of rice and an additional 461 quintals of flour are stuck in Hilsa due to continuous snowfall.

On October 16, the District Administration Office had sent a team of five members headed by Assistant Chief District Officer Dashrath Rai to Hilsa to collect the consignment. But continuous snowfall impeded its transportation.

Efforts to clear the snow to resume transportation remained unsuccessful given the continuous snowfall, said CDO Acharya.

“A meeting of the Disaster Crisis Management Committee has requested the provincial and federal governments to assist in airlifting the stock of essentials,” he said. “The Home Ministry has said it will airlift the remaining stock from Hilsa with the help of Nepal Army helicopters. Transportation will probably resume from Friday.”