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The Centre has launched a dialogue with State Governments to find an expeditious solution to the vexatious issues of foodgrain storage and distribution.
The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Prof K. V. Thomas, is piloting discussions in different zones in the country where he and a team of officials attached with his Ministry will interact with Food Ministers of States from the respective zone.
FIRST IN SERIES
The first in the series was launched in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday where Ministers from southern States interacted with the delegation from the Centre.
Such discussions will be subsequently held in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, Prof Thomas told Business Line here.
Distribution of foodgrain and other materials falling under the public distribution system is posing a big challenge, the Minister said.
Ships are pressed into service to reach them to a remote location such as Lakshadweep while helicopters fly sorties to drop them in the land-locked North-Eastern States.
The big issue that confronts the Government today is storage of foodgrain at the most proximate location for meeting peak demand.
INCREMENTAL STORAGE
The Andhra Pradesh Government, for instance, has approached the Centre with a proposal to set up its own storage facility. But this is something that cannot be built overnight, the Minister said.
On its part, the Centre has a proposal for setting up incremental storage capacity of 17 million tonnes over a period of three years.
But the challenge really is to find an immediate solution, given the prevailing foodgrain availability dynamics.
This is what prompted the Centre to push allocations under special schemes. But offtake has failed to measure up, with States citing their own reasons.
Most important among them is the issue of differential pricing that rendered it difficult to dovetail this scheme with the prevailing PDS.
SUBSIDY COMPONENT
“We have to find a solution to this issue. This is what we are discussing through the zonal dialogues with State Food Ministers,” Prof Thomas said.
“We cannot also raise overnight allocations under APL where the offtake ranges from 30 to 40 per cent. On top of it, there is a subsidy component involved.”
For every kg of foodgrain allocated to States, there is a subsidy component of Rs 7-8. The subsidy bill has shot up manifold from Rs 23,000 crore just five years ago to Rs 88,000 crore as of now.
It is imperative that the public distribution system be improved and modernised. The Centre needs cooperation from the States in this regard, the Minister said.
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