A dispute between Food Minister Sharad Yadav and the bureaucracy in the ministry is likely to be referred to the Prime Minister's Office. Yadav has incurred the wrath of the bureaucracy for his suggestion that lustre-lost wheat be sold at a discounted price to state governments.
Wheat worth Rs 1,600 crore will have to be given away as cattlefeed if it is not retrieved and distributed in the next five months. However, a high-level committee in the ministry, presumably suspicious of the minister's motives in mooting the proposal, has turned it down.
Lustre-lost wheat is wheat with a discoloured outer skin. In terms of nutritional value, it is no different from ordinary wheat. However, it has a shorter shelf life because of its high moisture content.
The government had to procure nearly 16.7 million tonnes of lustre-lost wheat during the 2001-2002 rabi marketing season, following the hailstorm last year in Punjab and Haryana, which badly damaged the wheat crop.
Much of this wheat could be disposed through the public distribution system or sold to roller flour mills. However, 5.1 million tonnes of wheat is still stored with state agencies in Punjab and Haryana. These stocks have to be sold in five months because of the short shelf life of the wheat.
State governments have refused to buy the wheat because they see it as damaged and claim it cannot be recycled. Accordingly, Yadav suggested that they be given a discount of 5-10 per cent on certain quantity slabs. That way, the minister argued, the state governments could buy the wheat cheap and sell it at public distribution system prices, keeping the difference.
However, the high-level committee has recommended that no discount be given. Their unstated objection relates to accounting issues. Yadav told his bureaucrats he was willing to take the onus of the decision.
But the bureaucracy has made it clear that saving Rs 1,600 crore for the central government is not reason enough to merit recommending a discounted price for the wheat. If the offtake does not take place in five months, the wheat will be useful only for cattlefeed and will have to be sold at a fraction of its price. Currently, the stock of lustre-lost wheat with the government is worth Rs 3,100 crore.
Officials close to Yadav argue that after the reports of starvation deaths in Rajasthan, it makes sense to sell the wheat at a discounted price instead of giving it away and causing a huge revenue loss.
However, not only is the bureaucracy blocking the decision, no senior bureaucrat in the ministry is prepared to take responsibility for the wheat.
