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Food crisis hits several western hill districts in Nepal
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-09 17:03

KATHMANDU -- Hundreds of local residents have been compelled to leave the country for survival as the food scarcity looms large at nine different hill districts in mid- western and far-western development regions in Nepal, The Kathmandu Post reported on Saturday.  

Claiming the government was indifferent to such a grave problem, the victims said they had not alternative but to go to neighboring India to fill their bellies.

Informal Sector and Service Center claimed that about 50 locals at Pakha village of Kalikot district have been displaced from the village due to food crisis.

"All of them have migrated to India to work for their livelihood now," said the report.

Similarly, in Achham district, about 2,000 locals from 25 villages in the eastern part have left for India due to food scarcity in the district.

"I am going to India as there is nothing left at home to eat," said Chandrakanta Dhakal in the district.

They criticized the government for not supplying foodstuff though they had been demanding food for the last month.

Locals said that hundreds of other people in the village were planning to go to India owing to the food shortage in the district.

Meanwhile, various human rights organizations at Nepalgunj of Banke district, some 360 km west of Kathmandu, demanded that the government supply foodstuff immediately to the affected districts.