Ministry Of Home Affairs Asks Ministry Of Regional Assistance To Fulfill Food Shortages Ahead Of Ramadan

JAKARTA - The Inspector General (Irjen) of the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) Tomsi Tohir appealed to relevant ministries and agencies to assist local governments who experience a shortage of food supplies ahead of the month of Ramadan.

"To ladies and gentlemen from ministries/agencies, we ask to focus on providing solutions for friends in the regions," said Tomsi as reported by ANTARA, Monday, March 20.

According to him, if the lack of availability of food is not met, it is certain that the price of these needs will increase.

He conveyed this while attending the Regional Inflation Control Coordination Meeting (Rakor) at the Sasana Bhakti Praja building, Kemendagri Head Office, Jakarta.

Tomsi conveyed that the local government (pemda) has provided data related to the list of food ingredients that are experiencing shortages. The foodstuffs include rice, purebred chicken, purebred chicken eggs, shallots, garlic, red chilies, cayenne pepper, cooking oil, beef, corn, sugar, and soybeans.

Tomsi reminded all regional heads to make maximum efforts to controlling inflation in their respective regions.

He asked local governments to monitor prices and supplies of basic goods in their respective areas every two days.

"Thus, if there is an increase or fluctuation related to prices and stocks (basic goods), then the efforts we are making are not too late," said Tomsi.

He emphasized that all districts or cities must carry out these monitoring steps because based on his records as of March 20, 2023, the monitoring of prices of basic goods was only carried out by 407 regions.

Apart from monitoring, he added, the local government needs to take various other important steps, such as operating a low-cost market with related agencies, maintaining the supply of basic commodities, and other important materials, conducting market inspections, and distributors so as not to withhold goods.

In the near future, Tomsi hopes that all regional governments will make efforts to control inflation in a more comprehensive manner, such as by continuing to build communication with ministries/agencies, including law enforcement officials to deal with fraud in the field related to the distribution of basic goods.