BJP demands probe by parliamentary panel into rotting food grains issue

Maintaining pressure on the government over the issue of rotting of food grains, BJP today claimed that stocks worth Rs 58,000 crores had gone waste in state-run godowns and demanded a probe by Parliamentary panel.

BJP leaders Navjyot Sidhu, Kirit Somaiya, Prakash Jhavdekar and others visited FCI godowns in Kurukshetra, Karnal and Ambala and saw "lakhs of wheat bags rotting in the open", a party release claimed.

It said this was the 24th FCI godown "visited and exposed" by Somaiya, BJP national secretary, in last six weeks and observed that 180 lakh tonnes of food grains were kept in the open mainly in godowns in Haryana.

Following the inspection, Sidhu charged the government with sheer criminal negligence on part, saying it has allowed Rs58,000 crores worth grains to go waste.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Jhavdekar demanded a parliamentary committee probe into the  the issue as government claimed that grains only worth Rs six crore had gone waste.

The godowns visited by the main opposition party's leaders itself had grains to the tune of Rs 10 crore rotting, the release added.