Thomas said that due to the increased procurement of foodgrains and to reduce the storage under cover and plinth (CAP), the government formulated a scheme for construction of storage godowns through private entrepreneurs, the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and State Warehousing Corporations (SWCs). Assessment of additional storage needs under the scheme is based on the overall procurement/consumption and the storage space already available. For the consuming areas, storage capacity is to be created to meet four months' requirement of the public distribution system (PDS) and other welfare schemes in a state. For the procurement areas, the highest stock levels in the last three years are considered to decide the storage capacity required.
A capacity of 151.96 lakh tonnes is to be created under the scheme through private entrepreneurs and Central and State Warehousing Corporations in 19 states. Out of this, for a capacity of about 107 lakh tonne tenders have been finalised on the private investors including the capacities being constructed by CWC/SWCs on their own lands. The government has also approved creation of a capacity of 20 lakh tonnes in silos within the overall storage requirements of FCI under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The government has also finalised a plan for construction of an additional total storage capacity of 5.4 lakh tonnes in the north-eastern states. Further, for the states' own intermediate storage, capacities are being created within the states under various schemes like the Rural Godown Scheme and the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) being operated by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
The minister said that the problem of storage space during Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2012-13 has been reported from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. The government of Madhya Pradesh has taken steps to hire private godowns and space at rice mills to cater to the additional space required for storing wheat. The government of Uttar Pradesh and FCI have jointly initiated steps to hire the smaller godowns of 2,000 MTs and 5,000 MTs along with spaces available with sugar mills, air-strips, etc.
The problems of storage space in Punjab is due to increased procurement. As on May 9, 2012, a quantity of 118 lakh tonnes has been procured against an estimate of 108 lakh tonnes for the procurement season. Likewise in Haryana, the procurement is 81 lakh tonnes as on May 9, 2012 against the estimate of 70 lakh tonnes. In Rajasthan, the procurement has been 9.69 lakh tonnes as on May 9, 2012 against an estimate of 14 lakh tonnes.
Thomas said that to meet the increased requirement of storage space, the zonal executive directors and regional general managers of FCI have been given full powers for hiring of godowns for short-term usage to store the procured foodgrains as per their requirement if the capacity available with FCI is not sufficient to store the foodgrains.
He said that the Supreme Court, in its orders dated May 14, 2011 and September 14, 2011 (in Civil Writ Petition No. 196) directed the Union of India, to reserve 5 MTs of foodgrains as a one-time measure, for distribution to the 150 poorest districts or the extremely poor and vulnerable sections of society. Further, the Court directed that the above 5 MTs may be allocated on the recommendations of the committee headed by D P Wadhwa, retired justice. In pursuance of the above directions of Supreme Court and on the recommendations of the committee, the government has allocated a quantity of 23.69 lakh tonnes and 15.40 lakh tonnes of rice and wheat for the additional BPL and AAY families in the identified poorest districts in 27 states during 2011-12 and 2012-13 respectively. The above includes 1,473 tonnes of foodgrains allocated in February 2012 for one year to six districts in four states for running community kitchens to provide cooked food in places like collectorates, city hospitals, bus stops and in pockets inhabited by poor and vulnerable people in collaboration with corporations/public sector undertakings under a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.
