Hindustan Times: New
Delhi: Thursday, June 20, 2013.
The Centre,
it seems, might again be required to go in a damage control mode and account
for the loss of Rs. 45 crore worth of foodgrain in the past five years.
The data was
accessed by Hindustan Times through Right to Information. And as per our
calculation, the grains, damaged mostly during handling and storage, could have
fed at least 250,000 people per year.
The
government had earlier admitted to a loss of wheat worth Rs. 5 crore and rice
worth Rs. 40 crore in the last five years.
The
revelation comes at a time when the UPA-led government is trying its best to
push the food security bill through an ordinance on the grounds that it will
give two-third Indians a legal right to affordable food.
At least 12.5
lakh people could have been fed if we had better food storage facilities.
The RTI reply
shows that although the government has been able to bring down losses over the
years, a creaking food storage infrastructure continues to result in high
wastage of food grains in a country which, by one count, has 200 million
food-insecure people.
The government
procures food grain from farmers at a minimum support price, which has been
continuously hiked over the years, so that it could be distributed to the poor
at subsidised rates.
The financial
losses could be even higher if costs of transportation, handling and storage
are accounted for.
Yet, despite
government estimates putting the death of children due to malnutrition at a
minimum of 3,000 every day, heaps of food grains lie rotting in the fields.
In 2011, the
Supreme Court had rapped the Centre on its knuckles and ordered it to release 5
million tonnes of foodgrain for distribution in the poorest districts of the
country. Sadly, the wastage of food grains continues unabated.
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