Poor locals scramble for ‘decayed’ rations BY HARIHAR SINGH RATHAUR DAILEKH, June 28 - Scores of residents of Chupra VDC in Dailekh scrambled to grab tons of decayed rice, while the grain was being prepared for disposing, Tuesday. Roughly 153 quintals of decayed rations, supposed to have been delivered to Jumla district during a famine, were stored at district headquarters Dailekh since the last four years. Local Development Ministry and donor agencies had decided to dispose of the rations by burning them on a riverbank in neighboring Chupra VDC. However, locals put out the fire and jostled among themselves for the grain. They also looted trucks transporting the decayed food. According to a driver, three vehicles returned to Dailekh municipality on Wednesday morning after aggressive locals started looting the rations. Meanwhile, staff deployed for disposing the decayed rations are facing difficulties after Badi locals of Namuna area refused to allow the returned rations to be kept inside a godown at district headquarters. Instead, defying the officials' claim about the threat of eating the decayed food, the locals feasted on the rations. "I ate the food and found the meal tasty," said Naina Nepali, an elderly woman of Namuna slum area, sheltering under one of the trucks that transported the grains to the area. "We will accept the food, decayed or whatsoever. The government cannot just dump rations while people are famished," she said gobbling a handful of rice. Other locals in the marketplace rushed to the storehouse after the rumor of 'free ration' spread in the area. Local families busied themselves taking loads of rations to their homes throughout the day. Two years ago, locals indulged in a similar spree of capturing food rations when local administration buried 200 quintals of stale ration supply in the area. Most of the locals used the rations as meals while others prepared liquor from the decomposed food, after digging out the buried ration.