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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Rotting foodgrain rattles govt

Rotting foodgrain rattles govt

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published Published on Aug 10, 2010   modified Modified on Aug 10, 2010

Acknowledging that the rotting foodgrain was “shameful” , the government told Parliament on Tuesday that aggressive measures will be taken to increase storage capacity in the next 2-3 years. The government was also considering giving infrastructure status to warehouses to attract the private sector into the field in a bid to increase storage space.

Responding to a calling attention motion in the Rajya Sabha, agriculture minister Sharad pawar said: “We will invest from the government side and encourage private sector and the state governments to invest in warehousing because rotting of foodgrain is shameful. We are in consultation with the finance ministry to give infrastructure status to warehouses.” The minister said that with a proposal like Food Security Bill, the government needs to have at least two years’ stocks for which storage capacity is required.

Mr Pawar said while the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has increased its storage capacity from 227 lakh tonnes to 274 lakh tonnes in the last two years, the government agencies had to take the responsibility of procuring some 97-99 % of the foodgrain arrivals. This was because private parties were not interested in procurement on account of the high taxes imposed by some states. States like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Andhra pradesh and Chhattisgarh have a tax rate that ranges from 8.5-12 .5% while taxes in the remaining states are in the range of 2-4 %. The agriculture minister said that he had written to several states to consider the issue of high taxes on food procurement by private agencies in mandis.

Arguing that some damage was inevitable given the size of the stocks maintained by the FCI, Mr Pawar said that responsibilities have to be fixed for the damage. The FCI has suspended eight officials. It has also initiated disciplinary action against a number of officials in Uttar Pradesh. Senior officials have been instructed to monitor movement and handling of foodgrain stocks. The issue of rotting of foodgrain has angered several political parties. Lashing out at the government for the “glaring lapse” , senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said: “Government has miserably failed in its duty to supplement storage capacity.” Cutting across party lines, members voiced concern over the loss of foodgrain while millions are hungry.

Referring to the SC’s observation that families above poverty lines should be kept out of PDS, Mr Pawar said he did not agree with it. On the contrary, there was a demand for universalisation of the PDS. Mr Pawar said the Centre will reply to the court in a day or two and put forward the government policy.


The Economic Times, 11 August, 2010, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Rotting-foodgrain-rattles-govt/articleshow/6290958.cms


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