There is no proposal to revamp the Food Corporation of India, the government today said even as it admitted to management-related problems in the FCI affecting procurement and distribution of foodgrains for PDS.

“There is no proposal before the government to revamp FCI. It is the only organisation which helps the farmers to get the minimum support price...However, I do admit there are problems with the management of FCI,” Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Mr K V Thomas said.

He said during Question Hour that the administrative cost of FCI has come down following rationalising of its staff strength in 2010. The rationalisation was carried out to strengthen the areas of quality control and storage among others.

FCI has around 630 lakh tonnes storage capacity now and around 150 lakh tonnes capacity is being added through public- private-partnership mode, he said, adding the need for raising capacity would not be much even after implementing the Food Security Bill.

“The requirement of foodgrains to implement the National Food Security Bill is unlikely to be substantially higher than the current allocation of foodgrains under the PDS and other welfare schemes. The scale of operation of FCI is, therefore, not required to expand significantly,” he said.

Related Topics