Rehabilitation Ministry withdraws spoilt WFP rice from NE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 November 2002, 17:52 GMT]
The Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Refugees Ministry Sunday began withdrawing its stock of spoilt rice sent to the Trincomalee Multi Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) under the World Food Programme (WFP) for the distribution to the internally displaced in refugee camps and welfare centres in the east port town. The withdrawal was prompted by the Medical Officer of Health (MoH) declaration Friday that the rice was unfit for consumption. Rehabilitation Ministry sources said spoilt rice sent to Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar will also be withdrawn and be replaced with good quality stock.

The Jaffna Government Agent Mr.S.Pathmanathan has also brought to the notice of the Rehabilitation Ministry that more than three thousand bags of rice sent under the WFP project to distribute to the displaced in the peninsula are also found unfit for human consumption.

Workers busy removing spoilt rice

Rehabilitation Ministry official arrived Trincomalee Saturday and made necessary arrangements with the MPCS management to transfer the spoilt stock back to Colombo and to replace it with quality rice.

The Trincomalee MPCS immediately began sending the quality rice it received under the WFP to be distributed to the displaced now staying in twelve refugee camps in the district before the Deepavali day which falls on Monday, sources said.

The Trincomalee MPCS received six loads of the ten lorry loads of fresh quality rice till Sunday evening. The balance four-lorry loads of rice are expected to arrive Trincomalee next Tuesday, district secretariat sources said.

Every week the Trincomalee MPCS needs more than seventy thousand kilogram of rice supplied under the World Food Programme to distribute to the internally displaced in Trincomalee town, Kinniya, Muttur, Seruvila, Eachilampathu, Kantalai, Tampalakamam and Kuchchaveli divisions.

Spoilt rice being loaded back into lorry

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