Stressing on the need to create sufficient space for storage of food grains, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday directed the Food & Supplies Department to take up with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) the issue of expediting shifting out of food stocks from the state’s warehouses and mandis.The Chief Minister said the FCI must increase the monthly quantum of food grain delivery from Punjab from the current 13 LMT to 20 LMT so that adequate storage capacity could be created in the warehouses and Mandis for both Wheat and Rice. He also suggested that in addition to efforts towards increasing covered storage facilities, FCI should be asked to further augment their storage capacity in Punjab to minimise the state’s burden to preserve the food grains.Captain Amarinder Singh also asked the Department to raise with FCI the issue of providing guarantee for creation of 17 LMT Silo capacity at 31 locations, for which agreements had already been executed by PUNGRAIN, failing which the process would have to be scrapped and fresh tenders would have to be floated as per FCI policy.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister stressed on the need to aggressively motivate farmers to go in for crop diversification in order to break away from the wheat-paddy cycle to make agriculture profitable and viable again.Earlier in the meeting, Principal Secretary Food & Supplies informed the Chief Minister that during the present Rabi season, more than 125 LMT wheat had been procured, of which 84 LMT had been supplied to food deficit states. The Department was targeting procurement of more than 117 LMT paddy in the forthcoming season, he added.He further informed the meeting that the state, by the end of May 2018, had 232.67 LMT of food grain stocks, of which 165.50 LMT was expected to move out by March 2019. By that time, the state would have 175.22 LMT of foodgrain stock following the paddy harvest.The meeting was attended, among others, by Food & Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Media Advisor to CM Raveen Thukral, Chief Principal Secretary to CM Suresh Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Viswajeet Khanna, Additional Chief Secretary Cooperation D P Reddy, Principal Secretary to CM Tejveer Singh.