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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Instead of feeding the poor, India lets grain rot by Samar Halarnkar & Manpreet Randhawa

Instead of feeding the poor, India lets grain rot by Samar Halarnkar & Manpreet Randhawa

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published Published on Jul 26, 2010   modified Modified on Jul 26, 2010


A day after the Prime Minister urged a quick start to a national food security network, it has emerged that his government may let foodgrain —enough to feed 140 million poor people for a month—decay, instead of spending money and effort distributing it to the poor.

Warning of an “emergency situation”, a person familiar with the situation told the Hindustan Times that 17.8 million tonnes of wheat and rice are being stored under tarpaulin across India. Of this around 10 million tonnes has seen at least one monsoon, at risk of rotting.

In Punjab, 49,000 tonnes of this foodgrain is ready to be destroyed after spending three monsoons—to be fit for human consumption, it cannot endure more than one—covered with tarpaulin.

“The wheat stocks have rotted,” said Punjab food and civil supplies principal secretary S.P. Singh, referring to the 49,000 tonnes.

The fate of the remaining wheat and rice stored under tarpaulin will be discussed on Monday by an empowered group of ministers (eGoM), which in March had rejected a suggestion to release grain to states at subsidized prices fixed for families above the poverty line.

The meeting lists on its agenda the “offloading of 2-3 million tonnes of grain in the open market”, which implies the larger issue of rotting grain may not be addressed, or its release to India’s poor. At a time when the government is trying to rein in its growing food subsidy Bill (Rs55,000 crore and likely to balloon by three times if the right to food becomes law), the finance and food ministries are reluctant to spend an estimated Rs5,000 crore on distribution.

The counter-argument: With India being home to a quarter of the world’s hungry people and a third of its malnourished children, foodgrain cannot be allowed to rot; the state must find a way.

Since May, the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the agency holding the largest percentage of grain, made a series of suggestions to the Centre. One of these is to distribute the grain to 150 of India’s poorest districts, at present being considered by the National Advisory Council as a proving ground for universal distribution of subsidized foodgrain as one solution to widespread poverty and hunger.

Of the 59 million tonnes of grain stored by FCI and state agencies across India, 42 million tonnes is in covered buildings. The amount of grain stored under tarpaulin has been rising. It was 9.4 million tonnes in 2008; 16 million tonnes in 2009 and 17.8 million tonnes in 2010 (as on 1 June).


Live Mint, 25 July, 2010, http://www.livemint.com/2010/07/25234149/Instead-of-feeding-the-poor-I.html
 

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