Agartala/Aizawl: Tripura and Mizoram are facing a food crisis, as the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has not supplied the allocated quota of food grain to the two states, officials informed on Thursday.

In view of the inadequate railway wagons and feeble tracks of NFR (Northeast Frontier Railways), the FCI is unable to supply food grain to Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam, Tripura Food and Civil Supplies Minister Manik Dey has stated.

Quoting FCI and railway officials, Dey said, The FCI officials assured Tripura MPs that it would supply food grain by trucks and would build a buffer stock in the region.

Parliamentarians from Tripura, led by Lok Sabha member Khagen Das, Wednesday met FCI chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) Syraj Hussain and top railway officials in New Delhi.

Mizoram Chief Secretary Pu Van Hela Pachuau too held a meeting with Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, demanding urgent supply of food grain, according to officials.

The central government has been supplying food grain, cooking gas, fertilisers and other essentials to the northeastern states.

Inadequate railway service to the hilly region is the main bottleneck in maintaining uninterrupted supply of food grain and other essentials, the Tripura food minister said.

The metre-gauge railway line from Guwahati passes through southern Assam's mountainous North Cachar Hills district, connecting landlocked Tripura's capital Agartala and parts of Manipur and Mizoram with the rest of the country.

He said Tripura had a buffer stock only for 23 days against the mandatory reserve of 60.

The Mizoram chief secretary, during his meeting with the cabinet secretary, has suggested six proposals, including building of adequate numbers of godowns, to overcome the recurring problem, he said.

Meanwhile, a Tripura government official said that the union cabinet secretary held a high-level meeting in Guwahati earlier this month with the chief secretaries and food and civil supplies officials of the eight northeastern states on the issue.