By IANS,
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday asked the government to release excess food grain stored in central pool for sale at subsidized rates to the poor.
“The total stock of foodgrains in central pool has reached 7.11 crore tonnes in May,” it said in a statement. “This is 5 crore tonnes in excess of the buffer stock norm.
“Much of these stocks are also rotting in the absence of adequate warehousing space. Yet the government refuses to offload these stocks of wheat and rice at cheap prices to the poor and malnourished.
“The government is more interested in exporting foodgrains, even by incentivizing private traders,” it said.
The CPI-M asked the central government to release these food stocks at Below Poverty Line (BPL) prices through the PDS and under special schemes for the drought-affected areas and to the poor and the destitute.