Rice meant to be distributed to the families in earthquake-affected areas have started to rot in the warehouse of Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) in Gorkha.

As the concerned authorities have failed to set up a working distribution mechanism to send the rice to the earthquake victims, a large quantity of rice is still stuck at the warehouse.

One NFC staff said that they have already sprayed medicine inside the warehous for at least three times to kill the insects eating the rice. The bug-infested rice were even sent to some earthquake-affected villages.

 A student from Sirdibash said the District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) had distributed bug-riddent rice in his village. “By the time we received the rice, it was already rotten. We could not eat it,” he said.

Besides rice, the warehouse is also hoarding pulses that were donated by Bangladesh. The pulses are also rotting.

The NFC has distributed only 260 sacks of rice till date. After the provisons began to rot, the NFC began distributing the spoilt rice in the areas that were not affected by the earthquake, including Palungtar, Chhoprak, Aampipal, Manbu, Harmi, and Kashigaun.

It is learnt that the order to dispatch the rice to these villages came from the DDMC coordinator, Uddhav Timilsena.

Ganga Prasad Shah, NFC section office chief, claimed the rice will be fit to eat after exposing in sunlight for some time.

 “We have used pesticides to kill insects,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Sirdibash villagers said they are compelled to buy rice in exorbitant price. As the road leading to the village has been dmaged by landslides, they said, shopkeepers levy surcharge as transport cost.