No unscientific storage of grain from next year: Government

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 30

The Centre has said that from next year, foodgrain would not be stocked in the cover and plinth (CAP) storage, which is unscientific.

Food Corporation of India (FCI) Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Atish Chandra today said, “An action plan has been prepared and implemented for shifting the entire stock from the CAP storage by March next year. The CAP capacity is being converted into 105 lakh MT covered storage in consultation with Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.”

“The open unscientific storage, which has often been criticised, will be a thing of the past. From next year, all grain will be stored scientifically,” Chandra told the media.

The FCI CMD further said 157 LMT of foodgrain was in the CAP storage in June this year, while the quantity had now reduced to 49 LMT.

Meanwhile, Chandra also said the process to introduce “third-party assessment of procurement and warehousing” had been initiated. Along with rice, testing to determine the age of wheat is also being initiated to stop recycling and diversions.

“The age testing of rice aims to curb leakages and diversion of PDS rice and avoid recycling. The ‘Mixed pH Indicator Staining Method’ for determining the age of rice was introduced from kharif marketing season 2021-22. So far, 3,000 tonnes have been rejected. A rapid testing method is also being developed to determine the age of wheat,” added Chandra.

Food subsidy to be little less than Rs 4 lakh crore

The government’s food subsidy is expected to be a little less than Rs 4 lakh crore in 2021-22 as against Rs 5.29 lakh crore in the previous fiscal, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said. During the 2020-21 fiscal, the government food subsidy stood at Rs 5.29 lakh crore.