Overfilled Moradabad FCI godowns lack basic facilities

Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh), May 25 (ANI): Grain godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad District are overfilled, but lack basic facilities for detecting or fighting a fire.

The godowns have old fire extinguishers and empty fire buckets. here is also a problem of procuring water.

"I don't think that they can douse fire. If a fire breaks out here, they would not be able to douse it. It is such a big area. With such arrangements, a fire cannot be doused. There would be an extreme loss to property", claimed Ravi Kumar, a labourer.

They godowns have a capacity to store hundreds and thousands of tonnes of grain, but a fire can destroy it all if proper arrangements are not made.

"We have to go one kilometre from here to fetch water. There is no water inside. There are no arrangements even for drinking water. Secondly, we work hard, the officials who are above us get their salary on first day of the month but we do not get paid for three months. There are no arrangements. There is no water", said Jag Jeevan, a labourer.

However, the godown officials claimed that there are facilities and proper arrangements in place for fire emergencies.

"Security arrangements have been made. Treatment of grain is done from time to time. Like for instance, our open areas are all covered with sheets. Chemicals are sprayed from time to time. There are guards for security and fire extinguishers as well," said D. S. Dafauti, the manager of the godown.

Thousands of tonnes of wheat had been ruined earlier in the FCI godown of Moradabad, in 2009.

The godown currently has stored nine million kg of wheat and 15 million kg of rice.

The FCI was set up under the Food Corporations Act 1964 for storage of food grains and its equal distribution to ensure National Food Security. By Vibhav Porav (ANI)