Centre rules out wheat, rice procurement in NE

Aizawl, Aug 4 (UNI) The Centre has ruled out possibility of procuring wheat and rice locally in the North-East region, saying there was very little marketable surplus of food grain in the region.

Ever since huge leakages and diversion of food grain in the region came to the notice of the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Ministry, a demand for local procurement surfaced, the official sources here today.

The Programme Evaluation Organisation under the Planning Commission in its performance evaluation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) has reported food grain leakages in various places in NE states at about 40 per cent and diversion at 12 per cent of Below Poverty Line-off-take.

During the year 2006, the Centre has allocated Rs 4.64 crore for construction of food grain storage godowns in the region.

A target of 6,240 MT has been fixed for creation of storage capacity and against this, till January 2,920 MT of storage capacity has been created by the Food Corporation of India.

For the next fiscal, the government has allocated Rs 5.5 crore for construction of food grain storage, Rs 2 crore for integrated information system for foodgrains management and Rs 3.25 crore for village grain bank.

The pace of expenditure also slowed during last year due to frequent law and order problems, bandhs and threats from militants.

Also it took some time to acquire land for construction of various centres.

After acquisition of land, 100 per cent utilisation of funds during the current fiscal could be ensured, the sources added.

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