SIVASAGAR, April 16 - Agriculture Minister Atul Bora and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Phani Bhusan Choudhury on Thursday visited Sivasagar and Charaideo districts to review the overall situation in upper Assam.
Briefing the media at the Sivasagar DC�s office, Bora said the State has sufficient food stock for over a month, and hence there should not be any shortage in the food supply chain.
Replying to queries that a section of unscrupulous traders have been reaping benefits by creating artificial scarcity of essential items, the Minister said the retail market in Sivasagar district is controlled by wholesale traders of Jorhat for which the three Deputy Commissioners of Sivasagar, Jorhat and Charaideo have been asked to monitor the situation.
The Minister said death of large number of pigs in the district, as reported by The Assam Tribune on April 9, is being looked into and the necessary preventive measures against swine fever are being taken so that it cannot take the form of another epidemic.
Bora said the government has been taking all possible steps for doubling farmers� income by 2022. The farmers and the SHGs have been provided tractors, power tillers and other agriculture machinery to encourage multiple cropping.
Choudhury said adequate measures have been taken to help the needy people during the lockdown and except rice and masoor dal, there is no scarcity of any essential items at present. �The state requires 5,000 MT of rice per week, and, therefore there was some shortage initially as the rice mills were completely closed for about a month,� he said.
The meeting was attended by Amguri MLA Pradip Hazarika, Thowra MLA Kushal Duwori, Sonari MLA Nabanita Handique, Sivasagar DC Lakhinandan Gogoi, Sivasagar DDC Nawab Al Azhar Ali, BJP leader Bhaben Mohan, and senior AGP leaders of the district.
