Aizawl: Mizoram Rajya Sabha member K. Vanlalvena on Wednesday urged the Centre to raise the monthly allocation of rice to the state from the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
During the ongoing budget session on Wednesday, Vanlalvena told the upper house of the parliament that the present monthly allocation of rice for Mizoram is only 50,000 quintals against the state’s monthly requirement of 1 lakh quintals.
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He said that only 50 per cent of the state’s rice requirement is received from the FCI as a result of which the state government has to purchase 50,000 more quintals from open markets at higher prices to meet its monthly requirements.
The Mizoram MP also said that the organisation structure of the FCI in the northeast needs a revamp.
He urged the Centre to create three more regions of FCI in the northeast.
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According to Vanlalvena, the existing FCI operative in the Northeast has been divided into five zones- Assam, Arunachal, Manipur, Nagaland and NEF regions.
The three states such as Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura are grouped and placed under the NEF region with a regional office in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong, which created certain problems in the administration of FCI, he said.
“As it is not administratively convenient to administer the three states from Shillong. I, therefore, strongly request the Union Ministry to create three more regions- Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura so that all the Northeastern states have FCI regional offices in their own respective states,” Vanlalvena said.
Meanwhile, Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu informed the house that he had recently visited Mizoram and addressed the state assembly.
Citing his experience in the Mizoram assembly, Naidu said he discovered a good discipline in the house as there was no disturbance and ruckus of any kind at any time, which was a good example for the entire nation.