Guwahati, April 16, 2003

The muchawaited proposal by the Manipur government for north-east India
to import rice from Burma has suffered a serious setback as the Indian
Food and Civil Supplies Ministry is not willing to grant permission for
the project to proceed.

Highly placed official sources today told this correspondent that the
ministry is not in a mood to accord permission due to an increase in
local rice production from various Indian states. "We are planning to
increase rice quotas to the states to meet their requirements instead of
importing rice from Myanmar", the sources added.

They went on to say that the country's rice production has increased
substantially in Punjab, Haryana and Assam and hence there is no supply
reasons to be importing rice from foreign countries. "The demand of the
north-eastern states can be fulfilled from the existing production",
the sources added.

The Manipur Government has submitted the proposal to the government of
India to begin importing rice from Burma in a bid to curtail the
current transportation costs and to improve relations between the two
countries. Moreover, they claim that the north-east Indian people prefer the
Burmese rice due to its high quality.

It may be recalled that the Manipur government had a plan to import 5
million metric tone (MT) of rice annually from Burma to meet the
requirement of their population. But the Indian Food and Civil Supplies
Ministry has turned down the proposal.

This resolute decision has irked the Manipur government. A senior
officer who did not wish to be named told Mizzima that the proposal to
import rice could have saved a huge chunk of revenue as the state was
reeling under severe financial strain. He further observed that Indo-Burma
relations can be improved further by the opening of trade, but the
"Center's decision has disappointed the people".