Rotting of foodgrains 'shameful', says Sharad Pawar

Admitting that rotting of foodgrains was "shameful", the government today said aggressive measures will be taken to increase storage capacity in the next 2-3 years.

"We will invest from the government side and encourage private sector and the state governments to invest in warehousing because rotting of foodgrains is shameful," agriculture minister Shard Pawar said replying to a calling attention motion on the subject in the Rajya Sabha.

He said government will have an aggressive programme on warehousing in the next 2-3 years.

Pawar said while the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has increased its storage capacity from 227 lakh tonnes to 274 lakh tonnes in the last two years, the government agencies had to take the responsibility of procuring between 97 to 99% of the foodgrains arrivals.

This was because private parties were not interested in procurement in the wake of high taxation on it, he said.

Pawar has written letters to several states to consider the issue of high taxes on food procurement by private agencies in mandis.

Contending that given the large stocks to be maintained by the FCI, some damage to stocks is inevitable, Pawar said responsibilities have to be fixed for the damage. The FCI has suspended eight officials. It has also initiated disciplinary action against a number of officials in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

Senior officials have been instructed to monitor movement and handling of foodgrain stocks.

The issue of rotting of foodgrains has angered several political parties. Lashing out at the government for the "glaring lapse", senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu (BJP) said, "Government has miserably failed in its duty to supplement storage capacity."

An anguished Supreme Court had also recently observed that excess foodgrains could well be used to feed the hungry rather than allowing it to rot.

Referring to the apex court's observation that families above poverty lines should be kept out of PDS, Pawar said he did not agree with it. On the contrary, there was a demand for universalisation of the PDS, he said.

Agreeing with Pawar, BJP also toed the government line of not taking away the PDS facilities from APL.

He said the government will reply to the court in a day or two and put forward the government policy.

Pawar said that with a proposal like Food Security Bill, the government needs to have at least two years' stocks for which storage capacity is required.