By IANS,
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggesting that foodgrain lying in Food Corporation of India warehouses should be allocated to the flood and drought-affected states for free distribution among the victims.
He said 605 lakh tonnes of foodgrain was lying with the government against the optimum storage capacity of 425 lakh tonnes. As much as 180 lakh tonnes of foodgrains was “lying in the open and getting rotten”.
“I would like to suggest to allocate the foodgrain lying in the FCI godowns to the flood/drought affected states as central assistance for free distribution among the victims through their respective public distribution and other systems with top priority to those who have been uprooted and the farmers whose crop has been destroyed,” Gadkari said in his letter.
He said that flood situation continues to worsen in Uttarakhand, eastern Bihar and northern Uttar Pradesh and state governments were gearing up to tide over the difficult situation with their limited resources.
Referring to parts of West Bengal and Bihar, the BJP president said some areas in the country had also been declared drought affected due to erratic monsoon.
Gadkari noted that the Supreme Court has asked the government to consider free distribution of foodgrain to the poor instead of allowing it to rot in warehouses and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had said that the court order will be honoured.