Punjab govt worried as procured grain lies exposed in markets

While production is not much of an issue,over the last couple of years storage of the harvested crop – both paddy and wheat – has become a cause of worry for the state government which has to face the wrath of various agencies involved in this process though the state government is acting on behalf of the Centre and is also bound by the rules laid down by the Government of India. The Punjab government cannot create any new storage places without their recommendation.

It has been learnt that some 15 lakh wheat bags are still lying in the mandis. A senior official who did not want to be identified says,“The problem lies with the FCI. The FCI has asked the state government to transport grain directly to its storage gowdons. Now there are places where some 400 trucks are standing but the FCI labour,which has a strong union,will not allow any other labour to unload these trucks. As a result,the stock is piling up and the movement of grain is extremely slow.”

DS Grewal,secretary,Food and Civil Supplies explains,“We opened up procurement with a previous storage baggage of some 50 lakh metric tonnes of crop lying in our stores. Some of this grain was moved after we raised the issue with the Centre. Moreover,we need to keep in mind the fact that wheat procurement in Punjab this year began around mid-April due to prolonged cold season (see box). By May 10,we got a very small period to handle 105 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and thus there was some problem. But on the whole the process has been very smooth at nearly all of the 1734 procurement centres.”

Grewal adds,“We have advertised for creating 27 lakh metric tonnes of storage space,so we working to improve the situation.”

Advisor to Punjab Farmers Commission Dr PS Rangi referring to past years says,“It was somewhere around 1999-2000 when there was an NDA government that we had some 64 million tonnes of food grains in the entire country. The problem of plenty has brought in storage problem. Punjab has a capacity of 100 lakh metric tonnes of covered storage. We will take into account just the stores with covered spaces as grain lying in open with just a plastic sheet to cover it makes no sense. Punjab has always been a transit state. We were to keep grain just for six months and before three months were over the next crop came and the older was moved out. The policy was that the consuming state had to create storage but now consuming states have become producing states.

“Punjab now needs to change gears. The first thing that we need is a dedicated rail line to speed up the movement of grain from here. At present the two goods train which we have are made to wait on the way to let other trains pass by. Secondly,Punjab will have to be funded by Centre to create more storage spaces for,presently,we are forced to keep grain for more than a year.”