Give 6-month ration in one go: Shanta

Shimla, May 26
While the Centre has decided to set up a panel under Planning Commission Member Abhijit Sen to look into the immense wastage of foodgrain, former Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Shanta Kumar has come out with a practical solution having no financial implications to address the storage problem.
He has suggested that instead of allowing the procured foodgrain to rot in the open, government agencies should distribute six-month ration in one go in place of the existing system of monthly supply.
At present, over 20 crore families were being supplied ration and on an average 35 lakh tonne of foodgrain is distributed every month. By releasing six months quota, over 200 lakh tonne of foodgrain will be distributed, which means the creation of that much additional storage capacity in the existing warehouses. Further, the responsibility of storage will be shifted from the government agencies to the consumer.
The senior BJP leader has in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that the proposal could be immediately implemented and without any investment. It will save the expenditure of Rs 4,120 per tonne on storage being incurred by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
The total annual saving to the FCI will come to Rs 1,400 crore. The funds thus saved could be utilised for providing storage bins free of cost to the families. The monthly ordeal of transporting and distributing the foodgrain across the country will be over.
Shanta Kumar lamented that the scheme formulated by him, while he was the minister for construction of warehouses in the private public partnership (PPP) mode, was not pursued by the UPA regime. Funds for the construction of 200 warehouses across the country were to be invested by the private parties and the FCI had only to make a commitment that it would hire the facility for storage of foodgrain for a definite period.
The total gap of the storage capacity in the country is estimated to be around 140 lakh tonnes. Since it is not possible for the state agencies to bridge the gap, the government has set up a committee to explore solutions by way of building silos for storage of foodgrain in the country.

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