Rice stock dwindles, thousands of poor people facing hunger.

(From The Jakarta Post)

Thousands of poor people in the Central Sulawesi regencies of Banggai and the neighboring Banggai Islands are at risk of going hungry as the local administration is falling short of cheap rice.

The poor are among the millions of people listed as buyers of government-subsidized rice under the cheap rice program, which was initiated to address the impact of the prolonged economic crisis. The distribution of cheap rice in the two regencies is conducted by the depot of logistics in the town of Luwuk, over 100 kilometers away from Banggai.

Head of the depot Nicolas Mawuntu told Antara on Friday his office had only 920 tons of rice …