NGOs in Jaffna request government to increase dry food ration to resettled IDPs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2010, 03:15 GMT]
The Federation of Non-Government Organizations (FNGO) in Jaffna has again appealed to the government to increase the amount of dry food rations given monthly to the resettled Vanni IDPs in Jaffna. The amount of monthly dry food ration given to a family now is hardly sufficient for them for a week, the federation said. This is due to the fact the amount of dry food rations issued monthly is based on allocations decided on in 1990 when there was internal displacement due to war and in the following 20 years the prices of food items had escalated, it pointed out.

A family of five or more are issued with less than 6kg rice, 4kg flour, sugar, dhal and cooking oil monthly, worth 1260 rupees, which is the maximum amount that the family could get.

This amount is not enough to meet the needs of the family even for a week.

The Vanni IDPs resettled in Jaffna peninsula had lost everything including their means of living during the recent war and these are the ones that are hit hard by the present system of dry food ration supply, the federation further said.

Though the federation has been repeatedly appealing to increase the dry food ration ministers and government officials give lame excuses without addressing the issue.