Par panel ousts govt over failure to meet FCI warehouse construction targets

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) A parliamentary panel on Monday criticized the government for failing to meet warehouse construction targets in the past four years to September 2024 and asked the nodal ministries to form a high-level committee to expedite construction of warehouses in the Northeast Ministry of Progress and Hill State.

In its sixth report to Parliament on funding requirements for 2024-25, the Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said that against the target of setting up warehouses with a capacity of 50,100 tonnes by 2023-24, the Food Corporation of India ( FCI) can only achieve a production capacity of 1,760 tons, utilizing $52.75 Crores.

The report said that the target for 2024-25 was to build 58,540 tons of production capacity, “but as of September 30, the target was zero.”

With the implementation of the National Food Security Act, the FCI will not be able to meet its realistic target of building warehouses in 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 before September, it added.

The committee also expressed concern over the lack of progress in building warehouses in the Northeast and said reasons such as delays in land acquisition by the state government, poor terrain conditions and bad weather were not new but better planning should have been done. Already in place.

“…the plan should take into account these realities of the Northeast and Hill States and therefore the implementation strategy of the plan should be formulated,” it said.

The committee recommended that the government set up a high-level team including state officials to effectively address these issues, accelerate progress and achieve targets, the report said.

Regarding the construction of silos, the committee emphasized the importance of ensuring that these silos are uniformly distributed across the country, especially in wheat-consuming states, in a systematic and coordinated manner.

It is crucial to complete the construction of the silo within the allotted time. Furthermore, the report said the government should encourage active participation of the private sector in this effort and achieve the targets set in this regard to improve the efficiency of silo operations.

Silos with a capacity of 2.425 million tons are being built across the country, of which 1.775 million tons have been built and the remaining 650,000 tons are in various stages of development.

In view of the large number of complaints about under-weighing by dealers in fair price stores, the committee recommended that the government take all necessary steps to persuade states to integrate all electronic scales with every electronic point-of-sale device.