PM Orders Constant Supply of Essentials to Northeast India

Agartala, Jul 13 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked his top officials to ensure constant supply of food grains, fuels and other essentials to northeastern states, officials said in Agartala on Tuesday.

"The prime minister has asked Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar to personally supervise the supply of food grains, transport fuels and cooking gas and other esentials to northeastern states," a top Tripura government official said.

The prime minister held a meeting with officials in New Delhi on Monday evening and reviewed the situation of supply of essentials to northeast, the official said.

He also said that the prime minister asked the officials to take steps to build buffer stocks of essential items in northeastern states, specially Manipur and Tripura.

Chandrasekhar held a meeting on the issue on Saturday through video-conferencing. Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai, Tripura Chief Secretary S.K. Panda, Assam's Additional Chief Secretary N.K. Das and Food Corporation of India (FCI) CMD Syraj Hussain were among the officials with attended the meeting.

Panda said, "After the Saturday's meeting the FCI and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have taken urgent steps to supply food grains, fuels and other essentials to northeastern states."

"Railway wagons and trucks loaded with these materials have already reached different locations of Tripura, Manipur and Assam," he said.

Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, southern Assam and other parts of northeast had been facing shortage of essential items due to road blockades by different protesting organisations and disruption of railway services due to heavy rains in the past two and a half months.

The rail services were restored partially last week.