From Centre to Apex Court, all found fault with Food Corporation of India in allowing grains worth many crore being wasted due to lack of proper storage. The chance of NAFED and NCCF-the two agro-cooperatives of replacing FCI looked bright in the beginning. But alas for their hanky-panky, government is not even thinking them as FCI’s probable substitute.
Amid looming storage problems, the Centre on Wednesday asked state governments like Punjab and Andhra Pradesh to facilitate and expedite the creation of extra storage capacity for 15.2 million tonnes of foodgrains.
Currently, the Centre has a storage capacity of 62.23 million tonnes of foodgrains, though stocks in its godowns are at a peak level of 65 million tonnes. As a result, a considerable quantum of foodgrains is being stored in the open.
“So far, approval has been given for construction of 15.2 million tonnes of additional covered storage capacity in 19 states. I would request all states to provide all possible
assistance to the nodal agencies nominated in their states for construction of these new capacities,” Food Minister K V Thomas said in a meeting with state food ministers in N Delhi.
Due to insufficient covered space for storage of food grains and due to progressively increasing government stocks, “considerable food grains had to be stored under open
cover and plinth (CAP) storage”, he pointed out.
As result, the minister urged the state governments to regularly monitor the expeditious construction of 5.33 million tonnes of new capacity that has already been finalised under
public-private partnerships (PPP).
Noting that the states should finalise the tendering process for creation of balance capacities at the earliest, the minister said that additional storage capacity would be
created in the next one-two years.
The nodal foodgrains procurement agency, Food Corporation of India (FCI), is giving a ten-year guarantee of assured storage in these new capacities to attract private investors
to storage construction, he added.
The meeting, which was attended by the food ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, addressed the issue of inadequate storage capacity in the wake of bumper production and procurement last year.
Nandan Nilekani, the Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, and senior officials of the Planning Commission and Railways were also present at the
meeting.
Apart from the construction of godowns for storage of central stocks, Thomas urged the state governments to create additional storage space for their own usage.
The beleaguered Cooperatives NCCF and NAFED could have played a major role had there been full trust in their management to the Government. While Nafed is reeling under tie-up losses, NCCF is under CBI scanner on account of “some deal”.
“It is also felt that poor offtake of additional allocation of foodgrains to states is due to lack of intermediate storage capacity with states,” he said, adding that the state governments have lifted only 50 per cent of their total allocation in 2010-11.
The Centre has procured 28.03 million tonnes of wheat and 32.07 million tonnes of rice from the 2010-11 crop. Wheat production stood at a record 85.93 million tonnes and rice
output at 95.32 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year (July-June).