Residents of Monigong, a remote circle in Arunachal Pradesh’s Shi Yomi district along the border with China, are facing severe food shortage as supply trucks have stopped entering the district following the nationwide lockdown.

The situation has been exacerbated as residents depend mostly on rice distributed through the public distribution system and have almost exhausted their stocks.

Monigong is around 556km from Itanagar, and trucks have to cross East Siang, Siang and West Siang districts, besides Assam, to enter Shi Yomi.

“Following the nationwide lockdown, people of West Siang and Siang districts imposed traditional lockdowns at several places, making things worse. As we depend on these two districts for most of our supplies, we are facing a shortage of essential items, especially rice,” Taling Yapik, a Monigong villager said.

Yapik, the owner of a fair price shop, said they had no stock. “We distributed rice through PDS a month ago. It’s a desperate situation now,” he said, adding they are yet to distribute ration of December and January, as it has not been supplied by contractors.

Yapik said people are also worried about medical emergencies. “We also depend on West Siang for our medical needs and take patients to the district hospital in Aalo (West Siang headquarters). After the lockdown, we are wondering what will happen,” he said.

Yapik said though Monigong has a health centre, there is no doctor for one-and-a-half years. “There is only a health assistant and no medicines,” he said.

Lingdum Hemi, gaonburah (village chief) of Hemi village, said there are no pharmacies in Monigong.

He said their rice stock was exhausted and they have no other hope other than to wait for government supply. If the supply comes late, he said: “Most here have stopped growing rice and we may die of starvation.”

Hemi said food items were dropped by a helicopter on Friday but only for government officials.

All Shi Yomi District Students’ Union president Badur Hemi said the authorities are least prepared to handle the crisis. “The quarantine facilities are only on paper. Moreover, transportation of essential items has been blocked in Aalo and Kaying (Siang) because of the lockdown. This has resulted in acute scarcity of essential items,” he said.

He alleged that the situation has worsened owing to officials like Monigong extra assistant commissioner and Pidi circle officer being away from their place of posting.

Kiran Rinya, president of All Shi Yomi District Youth Association, said an association team had carried out a field survey a few days back, to take stock of preparations made by the administration and health department. “We found there was no thermal scanning at the main checkgate and people are moving freely. The quarantine centre at Tato has not been prepared,” he said.

Mechuka legislator P.D. Sona said he had given directions to the deputy commissioner and assured that the food crisis would end soon.

Sona said: “Monigong has some peculiar problems as the authorities normally use choppers to drop ration but it will be looked into soon.”

On the lack of thermal scanning at the checkgate, Sona, who is also the Assembly Speaker, said necessary equipment has arrived and the scanning had started on Saturday.

Deputy commissioner Mito Dirchi could not be contacted while Monigong extra assistant commissioner Sadung Gyadu denied reports of any food crisis.

Gyadu, who according to Rinya is in Itanagar, said rice had been distributed in Monigong a week back.