1 TRANSLATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND ... - APFA News

measures to ensure that food and other essential commodities would be
available to the people without any difficulty.
The hon’ble members were aware that the Food Corporation of Bhutan had a
country-wide network of godowns for storage and supply of food items to the
people to meet their demand. Yet, out of deep concern for the people, His
Majesty the King had commanded that the FCB create additional storage
facilities wherever necessary to overcome any food shortage and difficulties the
people may have to face in case of an emergency situation. He reported that as
part of the preparation, a godown with 800MT capacity was being constructed
at Khangma in Trashigang in addition to the existing 750MT Godown. All these
constructions would cost around Nu.11.731 million. Another 200MT Godown
was being constructed at Mongar along with a 800 MT godown in Nganglam
and a 150 MT godown at Bhangtar.
The Government was making arrangements to maintain food and other essential
commodities to last for three to six months for the people in the security
affected areas at a huge cost. The actual cost to the government was likely to be
much more as the stocks would have to be rotated every few months resulting in
substantial storage losses.
The Minister also informed the members that His Majesty the King had
commanded the Ministry of Agriculture to purchase the cash crops of the
farmers in the security affected areas in case of they are unable to sell their
produce due to the security situation. The Ministry was instructed to subsidize
the operations, if necessary, so that the main source of income for the farmers
would not be affected.
He said that, as submitted by the Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongda, in some of the
places where there was a high possiblity of the militants using force to get to
their supplies from the shops, the shopkeepers might have to close down their
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