The Hindu Business Line : Kerala CM opposes move for open market sale of rice

The Kerala Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan, has come down heavily on the Centre’s decision to sell rice in the open market through a tendering process.

In a statement here on Friday, he said that this was being done after the Centre had refused to allocate the State’s share of ration rice.

At the same time, wheat and rice procured by the States and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) had been piling up in the godowns.

The procurement of foodgrains has set a record this year with 27 million tonnes of rice and 22.5 million tonnes of wheat having been mobilised. It has also been reported that around four lakh tonnes of rice are lying in the godowns in Kerala.

Despite this, the Centre has totally withheld the State’s share of ration rice for distribution to the above-poverty-line (APL) section of the public.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the Centre had originally allocated 1.13 lakh tonnes of APL ration rice till March 2007. This was subsequently scaled down to 21,334 tonnes and again to 17,056 tonnes in the current year and completely stopped from August.

The Centre has taken the stand that ration rice will be allocated only after the State contributes paddy, procured at Rs 8.50 a kg, to the Central pool.

But, the State does not have enough quantity of paddy to contribute to the Central pool with the production being just one-fifth of the requirement. Besides, paddy is procured here at Rs 10 a kg.

State’s contribution

Even so, the State had contributed 85,000 tonnes of paddy to the Central pool after incurring heavy loss. The Centre wants the State to continue procuring paddy at this rate and contribute to the Central pool for a monthly allocation of 17,000 tonnes of rice in return.

This would mean that the paddy procured from here would be sold in the open market through a tendering process as per the latest decision, Mr Achuthanandan said.

The move will ruin the public distribution system in the country. The Centre should restore the State’s share of APL ration rice to the level obtaining before April 2007 from this month onwards and also ensure that only excess foodgrains that was left after allocation for the public distribution system be earmarked for sale through tender in the open market, the Chief Minister asserted.

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