Rice and wheat exporters to Bangladesh have landed in hot water as Food Corporation of India (FCI) has stopped supply of foodgrains in the month of February from godowns in the state of West Bengal.
Exporters said FCI was insisting that state based exporters would have to procure foodgrains from western states in Punjab and Haryana. FCI had asked exporters for making fresh payments for procuring from those states and carry grains on through rakes to Bangladesh.
Exporters have alleged that FCI had already collected Rs 60 crore from exporters based in West Bengal as advance for grain to be released from West Bengal.
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FCI has stated in defence of its decision that stock of food grains in its depots and warehouses in West Bengal had gone down to worrying levels. This was because of low transfer of stock from producing centres.
FCI was required to keep stocks equal to two month of allocation for the public distribution system (PDS). FCI was required to provide for monthly allocation of 1,21,773 metric tonne of rice and 3,60,697 of wheat every month to the state government for the distribution among identified sections of the population like APL (above poverty line) and BPL (below poverty line) card holders.
In addition to this, FCI was required to hold 28,988 metric tonne rice for the mid-day meal scheme, another stockpile of 12,530 MT of rice and 12,295 MT of wheat and a third reserve of 2,07,493 MT of food grains for different government schemes for distribution over 12 months.
FCI had a total capacity of storing 9.67 lakh metric tonnes of food grains in its 47 depots situated in West Bengal and Sikkim. At present, there was only two lakh MT of rice and one lakh MT of wheat of wheat in these depots.
Exporters pointed out that while there was scarcity in West Bengal, FCI godowns in Punjab, Haryana and some other states were full. FCI was facing severe problem in storing the freshly procured stock because godowns were full in those states.
They felt FCI itself could have initiated timely action for bringing grains from other states to West Bengal. This would have given FCI a chance or generate revenues but it appeared that FCI could not arrange rakes on priority basis.
Exporters were also upset with unfair practices adopted in allotment of rakes for export consignments. Rakes were reportedly in short supply and honest exporters were in the lurch because they stood to miss export deadlines.
West Bengal had five land ports through which grains were exported to Bangladesh. They were Benapole, Petrapole, Gojadanga, Sona Masjid, Hilli and Burimari.