State to store 35 lakh MT wheat on open plinths

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26

The state government told the Centre on Thursday that due to delay in the movement of last year’s wheat from its warehouses, the state would have to store almost half of the 80 lakh MT of wheat to be procured this year on open plinths.

Ravi Kant, Secretary, Central Department of Food and Public Distribution, who was in Chandigarh on Thursday to review the wheat procurement activities in Haryana and Punjab, however, told that due to lack of space in the consumption states, movement of the last year’s wheat was not immediately possible.

“We have total storage capacity of 120 lakh MT in the state. Out of this, 89 lakh MT is in warehouses, while the remaining 31 lakh MT is on open plinths. Another 8 lakh MT worth space is occupied by gunny bags and fertilisers belonging to Hafed,” said Ram Niwas, ACS, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, who attended the review meeting held at the Punjab Bhawan, on Thursday.

He said the last year’s wheat should have been moved to the consumption states by now, and that was the reason that he requested Kant to expedite the process.

The state crossed last year’s procurement figures of 74.23 lakh MT on Thursday, and the government is expecting the arrival of wheat to touch 80 lakh MT by the end of the season.

The state also requested the Centre to extend its Private Entrepreneur Guarantee (PEG) Scheme to augment the covered storage capacity through private entrepreneurship for one-year in Haryana. The scheme, otherwise, ended in March. However, sources said that Kant remained non-committal on this issue, but asked the state officials to expedite the construction of Silo warehouses of 6.5 lakh MT already approved by the Centre.