Hemant Gupta’s 30,000-tonne capacity godown for storing foodgrain is one of the largest in Ferozepur, Punjab. In 1978, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) hired it on a monthly rent of Rs75,000, or 50 paise per sq. ft—eventually raised to 80 paise per sq. ft. In 2004, Gupta says, FCI abruptly vacated his godown and stocked the grains in the open nearby. “See the rot within FCI,” says an exasperated Gupta. “They...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 505
48,315 tonnes of wheat lies rotting in Punjab by Manpreet Randhawa
Some 48,315 tonnes of wheat procured by the Punjab government is to be fed to cattle after being declared unfit for human consumption. The stock, enough to feed around 595,000 people through the public distribution system (PDS) for a year, had piled up over the previous three years. Officials at the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which declared the grains unfit after an inquiry in March, said Punjab’s procurement agencies had...
More »In Punjab, wheat worth Rs 800 cr goes waste annually by Prabhjot Singh
Antiquated food storage methods and technologies have been costing India dearly. The chairman of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Siraj Hussain, admits that food worth Rs 50,000 crore is wasted every year. This comes roughly to 20 per cent of the total food produced by the country. Though this figure includes food that is lost in processing, packaging, transportation and even marketing, yet a substantial portion of it is lost...
More »Prices soar, 61,000 tonnes of foodgrain rot by Nitin Sethi
The government admitted to the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on food and prices that 61,000 tonnes of foodgrain had rotted in its granaries as it was kept with poor protection for too long. The EGoM headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was ascertaining the status of overflowing stocks in Food Corporation of India godowns. Sources said Haryana and Punjab were unable to protect or sell the 15.5 million tonnes...
More »Instead of feeding the poor, India lets grain rot by Samar Halarnkar & Manpreet Randhawa
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...
More »
