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Union Government should make available adequate gunny bags in time

Bhopal: Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan urged the Union Government to make available adequate number of gunny bags to the state in time for wheat procurement. Besides, surplus procured wheat should also be lifted. In this connection, the Chief Minister has written a letter to Union Minister of State for Food & Civil Supplies Shri K.V. Thomas.
In the letter, the Chief Minister said that the state is once again facing problem of gunny bags supply for the current Kharif and ensuing Rabi procurement seasons. Preparations have been started in the state for Rabi procurement right now. The State Government had communicated its requirement to the Ministry well in time alongwith full payment of Rs. 72 crore 40 lakh in July this year. Through a series of several meetings in July, August and October, a programme was chalked out by the Ministry. Accordingly, 10,000 jute gunny bales are to be supplied in September, 30,000 jute gunny bales in October and 36,000 jute gunny bales in November 2012. Besides, the state is also to get 9,400 HDPP/PE bales also.
The Chief Minister informed that about 80 percent of the HDPP/PE bales have been received, but the programme for supply of the jute gunnies has not been adhered to. In September, the state was supplied only 5070 jute gunny bales whereas 10,000 jute gunny bales were promised. In October, Madhya Pradesh received 14 thousand 430 bales against the promise of 30,000 and backlog of five thousand bales. As a result, there is a backlog of 20 thousand 500 bales in the state in addition to the already promised 36,000 bales in November.
The Chief Minister requested Shri Thomas to direct all concerned to make available remaining 56 thousand 600 jute gunny bales date-wise and to ensure that all of these are delivered to the state in November itself.
Lifting of surplus wheat
In another letter to Shri Thomas, the Chief Minister drew his attention towards slow pace of lifting of wheat procured in the state during the last Rabi Marketing Season 2012-13. The Chief Minister said that this is causing a lot of anxiety.
Shri Chouhan said that Madhya Pradesh is a Decentralised Procurement State (DCP) and FCI is committed to lift all the surplus wheat procured by the state. Madhya Pradesh began the season with three lakh metric tonne surplus wheat from the previous year, which FCI had not lifted. Later, 85 lakh metric tonnes more wheat was procured in between March and May, 2012.
The Chief Minister said that of the total 88 lakh metric tonnes, maximum 30 lakh metric tonnes is required for local public distribution system/other welfare schemes. This means that FCI has to lift 59 lakh metric tonnes before March 15, 2013, when the next Rabi procurement season commences. As of October 31, 2012, FCI has accepted 24 lakh metric tonnes altogether. Thus FCI has still to lift 34 lakh metric tonnes in less than five months available.
The Chief Minister said in the letter that unless the lifting is taken to this level, the State is going to face a major storage crisis when the next Rabi season starts. The state is experiencing great storage crunch during the on-going Kharif season.
The Chief Minister has urged Shri Thomas to review this situation personally. In case FCI is unable to lift at the rate of seven lakh metric tones per month, one practical option would be to allot an enhanced quota through open market sale scheme to make up for the balance. So far, the state has been given a total of 1.64 lakh metric tonne quota, which is extremely inadequate, and will not in any way solve the storage/lifting problem.
The Chief Minister said that another desirable option is to increase the allotment of wheat and rice under TPDS for the BPL category. This has been a long-standing demand of the State Government. The State is getting BPL quota for less than half the real number of identified beneficiaries. The storage and transportaton cost of the foodgrain could be re-directed as subsidy under TDPS, helping solve the storage constraint as well as ensuring better food security for lakhs of BPL families, he added

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