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Troops and police help with production restoration in Xinjiang
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Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has been having its worst snowfall in six decades. Troops and police are now helping farmers and herdsmen restore agricultural production.
The temperature in Altay Prefecture has dropped to minus 35 degrees Celsius. Heavy snow and low temperatures have hindered the air-drop of relief supplies.
Pilot Liu Jun said, "The height of the clouds is about 12 hundred meters. We will fly over a two-thousand-meter high mountain. It's dangerous to fly over mountains in the clouds. We have to wait for the weather turn to better to conduct the mission."
The Air Force planned to fly six flights to parachute three tons of flour and some common medicines into remote villages and pastures. All the supplies have been loaded on the aircraft. Pilots waited for six hours but had to cancel the airlift because of the non-stop snow.
A number of villages in Yili prefecture have been isolated by the snowstorms. One household has been isolated for almost a month.
Local armed police delivered basics to stranded shepherds, with snow 50 centimeters deep in some places.
Wu Guoqiang, vice director of Political Dept., Yili Armed Police,said, "We have organized a contingent of 30 armed policemen and also prepared 1,000 kilograms of forage, three hundred kilograms of rice and flour, and 40 kilograms of edible oil for the shepherds."
It took the police three hours to reach them.
Although hit by heavy snow, Yili prefecture managed to get two thousand tons of corn, flour and other necessities to the worst hit part of Altay prefecture. Yili authorities have promised to send another four thousand tons of corn to Altay.
The Ministry of Finance announced on Monday another 14 million yuan from the central budget for Xinjiang's farmers and herdsmen to restore agricultural production.
