New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has asked the government to better distribute the excess food grains lying in its godowns to the BPL (below poverty line) families ‘at nominal price or even free of cost’ instead of wasting and rotting them.
The panel headed by BJP’s Shanta Kumar also suggested the issue of food coupons in addition to the public distribution system (PDS).
In a report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, the committee expressed its ‘extreme anguish’ that wheat and rice of more than three years — 2009, 2010 and 2011 — were still lying in the godowns and became unfit for consumption. In a country like India, where a vast majority of people still struggle to make both ends meet, such a colossal waste of precious food grains must be viewed ‘very seriously,’ it said.
“The government must also fix responsibility on those entrusted with storage of food grain and ensure that the cost of wasted grain is recovered from those responsible for the loss,” says the committee, which also included eight ruling Congress members.
It suggested food grains meant for six months’ consumption be released in one go under PDS to reduce the FCI’s storage problem.
In its action taken report, the government, however, affirmed that more than 77 per cent of the wheat stock in the central pool belongs to the current crop year and 55.24 per cent of the total stock of rice is about one year old.
In a detailed response, the government, however, admitted that 3.03 lakh tonnes of wheat of 2008-09 and 9.81 lakh tonnes of 2009-10 and 39.08 lakh tonnes of 2010-11 together amounted to 22.43 per cent of the total stock. More UNI SA SW 15
The government said 7.28 lakh tonnes of rice in government stocks was procured in 2009-10 amounting to 3.90 per cent of total stock, while 103.01 lakh tonnes of rice belong to 2010-11 and 76.97 lakh tonnes to 2011-12.
The parliamentary panel, however, deprecated the government’s stand that its responsibility ends with procurement and transportation of food grains up to the designated depots of the Food Corporation of India and the operational responsibility of lifting and distributing them to poor remains with the state government.
The committee also demanded that the private entrepreneurs should be incentivised to build godowns and silos and warehouses should be given industry status to give a fillip to private participation. It suggested the government to subsidise the cost of warehousing to large farmers to retain their crop for storage at their own end and release it to the common pool as and when required.
It asked the government to hold diplomatic level talks with the neighbouring countries to export rice and wheat through land borders to reduce the extra transportation and tax burden on exporters and reduce the surplus stocks in the government godowns. (UNI)