Chandigarh, December 5
The Centre, it is learnt, has rejected the request of the Punjab government to allow it to export surplus wheat stock to Pakistan and Afghanistan to provide storage space for paddy through the Attari border.
Expressing the dire need for storage space, food and supply minister Adesh Partak Singh Kairon has requested the Centre to either move wheat stocks out of Punjab or allow exports. With the Food Corporation of India (FCI) unwilling to move its buffer stocks of wheat, Punjab says it has inadequate storage space for paddy.
At present, Punjab has wheat stocks amounting to 95.22 lakh metric tonnes (MT), besides having old rice stocks from previous years amounting to 4.91 lakh MT. With the FCI moving only 2 to 4 lakh MT of grain out of Punjab, the state sees a huge storage problem in the coming days. The railway ministry despite assurances has failed to provide extra wagons to move stocks out of Punjab.
The FCI has been dilly-dallying on the issue of hiring private storage space with the Central office asking the FCI, Punjab, to initiate the hiring process. But in the absence of any guideline and policy to do so, the local FCI office has expressed inability to invite quotations for hiring space.
At least 120 lakh MT of paddy out of the 131 lakh MT procured this year is still lying in mandis waiting for shelling. Once the mills return the rice, the government will find it impossible to safely store the rice. Punjab already has about 106 lakh MT of wheat and rice from old stocks for which it is providing storage.
When it comes to the region, the stocks of Punjab and Haryana for wheat come to 138.89 lakh MT for wheat and 5.47 lakh MT for rice (Haryana has 43.67 lakh MT wheat and 0.56 lakh MT of old
rice).
The situation is alarming when viewed in the light of the fact that the peak Central pool (wheat and rice) storage available to the FCI and state agencies is only
62.92 lakh MT and they can hire another 40.05 lakh MT capacity from private
storage houses.
So, even if the entire existing wheat and rice stocks are moved out of Punjab, the state still has a shortage of 37 lakh MT to accommodate the fresh arrivals for the current season.
Unless immediate action is taken, lakhs of tonnes of wheat and rice are likely to be rendered unfit for human consumption because of improper storage.
