Godowns at block level to ensure food security success

In order to ensure the success of  UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s pet project — the food security — the government has decided to construct intermediary godowns by March end under MGNREGA and has allocated a hefty amount of Rs450 crore for the construction of godowns at block level. The construction of these godown would enhance the storage capacity of  the country by 15 lakh tonnes. 

“The Schedule 1 of MGNREGA will be amended for the construction of intermediary godowns at the block levels in each state. It would enhance our storage capacity by many folds as at present the states who take grains direct from FCI godowns face huge leakages and pilferage (around 25-30 %) in the stock while it reaches to PDS shop,” said Jairam Ramesh, minister of rural development addressing a joint press conference with food minister KV Thomas.

“This step would immensely benefit states like UP, Bihar, and Maharashtra. In UP, there are 821 blocks and construction of godown would enhance storage capacity by 2,000 tonnes per block.

Similarly Maharashtra has 321 blocks and a godown in each block would increase the storage capacity to around 1,500 tonnes. This is purely a centre-funded scheme and the state governments don’t have to do anything except providing one acre of land for the construction of godown in each block,” added Ramesh.