Tonnes of grains for needy, moved from food baskets of Punjab and Haryana

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, April 16

Tonnes of foodgrain has been moved from grain producing northern India to part of the country which need to provide grain to the poor and needy during this lockdown period.

As the lockdown commenced on March 24 the first task was to provide foodgrain for 80 crore citizens under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

The Northern Railways has despatched 15.75 Lakh Tonnes of foodgrains which is 137 per cent higher than last year. It has lifted 53 per cent of foodgrain during the lockdown period, a big chunk of it from Punjab and Haryana.

Stocks of wheat and paddy (rice) are maintained by the Food Corporation of India. Major loading stations during the lockdown period are Karnal, Kurukshetra, Rohtak, Jind, Moga, Amritsar, Muktsar, and Ludhiana. Loading is also being done from Uttar Pradesh—Barabanki, Lucknow, Sultanpur, Chandauli, Varanasi besides Badli in Delhi, Dehradun in Uttarakhand.

The task meant continuous lifting of foodgrain from surplus states Punjab and Haryana to deficient states and needs seamless synergy across the country to allow Northern Railways to speed up matters.

The Northern Railways has drawn up a chart showing how it loaded a record 51 rakes of grain. Each rake has anywhere between 18 and 24 wagons, each of which can carry about 54 tonnes. The normal demand is 15 rakes a day.

The need for loading more rakes arose after the government announced to provide additional 5-kg foodgrain per person to NFSA beneficiaries.

Deficient states are permitted to lift 3 months’ stock from Food Corporation of India on credit hence the rush.

Not just the speedy despatch of these foodgrain rakes, the other issue is of managing adequate supply of empty covered rakes from across the country and moving them to Punjab and Haryana.

For this operating officers of Northern Railways are working with 450 Section controllers, 5000 Station Masters, 400 Guards, 200 shunting staff, 3000 Pointsmen and about 1,000 crew to ensure unloading and loading at terminals.

In this lockdown period, moving staff from house to control-room and offices is being done through emergency vehicles and workman special trains.