NPC recommends one fair price shop in one municipality

Kathmandu: The National Planning Commission (NPC) has recommended to the government to open one fair price shope in one municipality. In order to implement the fundamental rights of citizens regarding food security, the commission has recommended this through the review study report of the supply policy of the last 10 years of time period.

According to the report, since most of the provisions of the National Supply Policy implemented a decade ago could not be effectively implemented, it is necessary to review it.

In the existing supply policy, the government has a target of keeping at least 25 thousand metric tons of food grains in stock for food security, but it has not been fulfilled and the number of fair price shops has not increased.

Although the Constitution of Nepal provides provisions regarding the right to food for every Nepali citizen, the implementation of the same has been slow, and the commission concluded that the municipality should be made responsible for the distribution of food items.

In such convenience stores, items like rice, flour, dal, salt and oil should be kept compulsorily.

Similarly, for food security, it is mentioned in the report that the production and storage of local products should be increased and arrangements should be made to purchase and distribute them at the local level.

The commission also suggests that the government should adopt a policy of importing only if local production is insufficient.