President Jokowi Assures Only Quality Rice Disbursed as Social Assistance

TheIndonesia.co - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) made assurance that the government would only distribute premium-quality rice as social assistance for the people during his working visit to Central Kalimantan.

"Has anyone received rice that's not of good quality? (The rice quality) Is all good, right? Yes, it is because what we distribute is all premium quality rice," the President remarked while distributing the government's food reserve assistance packages to residents, on Wednesday, June 26, as quoted by Antara.

He said that he had urged the assistance recipients to lodge complaints if they received poor-quality rice. However, no such complaints were recorded, as they confirmed having received good-quality rice, he added.

During his visit here, the president symbolically handed over 10-kilogram rice package assistance each for 380 recipients.

Jokowi affirmed that the government will continue to distribute rice to the people, depending on the capabilities of the state budget.

"Per our latest calculation, we can continue to August, October, and December this year. We are thankful, as we can do so after calculating the state budget capability," he stated.

He affirmed that the government and state agency Bulog, responsible for the national rice stocks, will also continue to improve their work and governance in serving the people.

Jokowi noted that the government currently holds 1.7 billion tons of rice stocks, which can help curb price manipulation from middlemen or other speculators.

Meanwhile, Bulog president director Bayu Krisnamurthi confirmed that the agency had allocated a portion of their rice stocks for government assistance to the people.

"We have readied the stocks for the food assistance. As the president said, we will increase it for at least the next three months," he stated.