Foodgrains worth Rs 2.45 crore has been damaged in FCI godowns till June of this fiscal and disciplinary action has been taken against 13 officials, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said.
State-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) stores foodgrains in scientific manner in covered godowns and in open storage. As on July 1, it was handling 54.5 million tonnes of wheat and rice stock.
"Scientific code of practices for safe storage of foodgrains are followed during storage. Inspite of all precautions, some quantity of foodgrains may get damaged and become non-issuable during storage due to various reasons such as storage pest's attack, leakages in godowns, procurement of poor quality stocks, exposure to rains," Paswan said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
The other reasons include negligence on the part of concerned persons in taking precautionary measures, he said.
Paswan said, "Disciplinary action has been taken against the erring officers of FCI for damage of foodgrains due to various reasons."
Till June of 2015-16, the government has taken disciplinary action against 13 erring FCI officials, while action against 77 officials was taken in 2014-15, he said while placing data on this issue before the Upper House.
As per the data, FCI godowns witnessed foodgrains damaged to the tune of Rs 23.48 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 19.90 crore in 2014-15. In these two years, action was taken against 127 FCI officials.
Paswan said that FCI and state government agencies have been asked to take remedial steps for proper upkeep of quality to check damages to central pool stocks.
On malpractices in public distribution system (PDS), Paswan said in a separate reply, "There have been complaints about irregularities in the functioning of PDS including genuine BPL consumers not getting items under PDS."
But these complaints are referred to the state governments for appropriate action as they are responsible for implementing the PDS at state level, he added.
