Tripura, at present has sufficient stock of food grain and fuel products and there are no reasons for panic and government agencies are continuing their raids against black marketing and hoarding by a section of errant traders, said the Food Minister.

Addressing a press conference at Civil Secretariat on Monday afternoon, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury accompanied by special secretary Alinda Bhattacharjee and Director of Food department, Nirmal Adhikari  said that the combat against the artificial crisis created by some traders during the Monsoon season, the special task force in Tripura has conducted a total of 290 raids, resulting in fines totaling Rs 4 lakh.

Chowdhury emphasized the challenges faced by the state during the Monsoon and said that with disruptions to goods transportation from Assam due to landslides and heavy rains on 26th April 2024 due to excessive rain in Jatinga-Lumpur area rail line collapsed due to landslide as a result there was problems occurred carrying  essential commodities to the Tripura state .

In order to counter the adverse situation the IOCL authority brought Diesel, Petrol by road, simultaneously the essential commodities also brought to the state to avoid man-made scarcity in the Market. Due to limited stock of petrol and diesel in the state the state government from 1st May initiated rationing of petrol and diesel. For the successful distribution of Petrol and Diesel in the state the Minister congratulated the people.

He further highlighted the ongoing efforts of task forces at both state and sub-divisional levels to ensure the availability of essential commodities at reasonable prices. Task force officials have conducted a total of 290 raids across the state in the last six months, he added.

Regarding fuel supplies, Minister Chowdhury reported that the current average daily demand for petrol and diesel stands at 275 kiloliters (KL) and 365 kiloliters (KL) respectively. He stated as of May 19, IOCL has a total of 1,700 kiloliters (KL) of petrol and 2,726 kiloliters (KL) of diesel in stock at various petrol pumps, including the depot in Dharmanagar under North Tripura district.

Anticipating the challenges posed by the upcoming Monsoon season, efforts have been made to ensure the smooth operation of transportation systems by road and rail to maintain a regular supply.

Minister Chowdhury assured the public regarding the availability of food grains under the public distribution system, stating that the state maintains a stock of 60-80 days’ worth of food grains. Despite recent disruptions in rail services, he emphasized that the public distribution system will remain unaffected.

Giving  details on the import of rice, Chowdhury said that FCI has so far imported about 9,114 metric tonnes of rice into the state through 147 rail wagons since the normalization of rail traffic on May 11. Additionally, he mentioned that 21 more rail wagons carrying public distribution rice are expected to enter the state by the evening of May 20.

With these measures in place, the state is expected to have approximately 90 days’ worth of rice stock under the public distribution system by May 31.