Chandigarh:
It is a problem of plenty for Punjab with over 50 lakh metric tons of wheat - some of it already rotting - after being in the open for almost a year.
And now, a bumper crop is being harvested with no solution to the storage crisis.
Last month NDTV had reported how wheat worth crores was rotting in the open in Punjab. Now, the PM himself has brought it up at a meeting with the chief minister, and the Food Corporation of India too has acknowledged the problem.
"We definitely require additional capacity....the high level committee has pointed out that 71 lakh metric tons of covered capacity is required to be created in Punjab. So we are moving in that direction, but right now with best efforts whatever the food grains we are procuring till they are moved out of the state. The best effort is made to ensure that it is stored properly," said Neel Kanth, GM FCI Punjab.
- This year the harvest is expected to be 115 lakh metric tons
- Of this, the FCI is expected to pick up 92 lakh metric tons
- And of this only 20 lakh metric tons will be stored in covered space
- The other 60-70 lakh metric tons will be stored in the open
- Adding to the 50 lakh metric tons that's already been out in the open for a year
Now the FCI is working to get more covered storage space in Punjab. But that will take at least 2 to 4 years and until then wheat worth hundreds of crores could rot.
The only option before the FCI now is to move the wheat out of Punjab as quickly as possible.
"We normally follow first in first out principle. When the new crop comes in the priority will be old crop, and from current year crop which is not stored at scientific places," said Neel Kanth, GM FCI Punjab.