Enough stock of food items to sustain lockdown period, says

The Assam government said on Wednesday that there are enough food items in the stock to sustain the state for the 21-day lockdown imposed in the wake of the coronaVirus outbreak.

Addressing a press conference here, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Phani Bhusan Choudhury said the state will sail through the lockdown period with its food stock without considering the FCI's stock under National Food Security Act.

"At present, we have 2 lakh quintals of rice, 89,794 quintals of different dals, 75,552 quintals of sugar, 12,879 quintals of atta, 1,35,997 quintals of salt, 20,410 quintals of potato and 14,380 quintals of onion across the districts," he added.

Along with these items, 56,317 tins of mustard oil and 38,738 tins of vanaspati are also available, Choudhury said.

"There are more of these items, which are either on the road or being unloaded at various places. There are some trucks stuck at the Assam-West Bengal border. These will arrive within the next two-three days. We have also contacted the commerce chambers, which have assured us that there will be no shortage," he said.

"With this amount of food items in the state, we will overcome this 21-day lockdown. We are more comfortable because many people have already stocked up 10-12 days of food at home. So there will be no crisis of food in Assam," he said.

When asked about shopkeepers increasing the prices, the minister said that the government will look into that matter in the next two-three days after streamlining the supply across the state.

At a separate press conference, chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna said, "We want to assure there is no shortage of food items now. May be one or two items are in short supply as these are extraordinary times."