BJP slams Congress over rotten grain supply

Noagaon (Assam), Sep 30 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari has hit out at the Congress party for failing to carry out a Supreme Court order to distribute grains among the poor and than letting them rot in godowns.

Addressing a public rally here on Wednesday, Gadkari said:

""Grains worth 58, 000 crores get rotted in our country every year, and the poor don't have enough to eat a meal. Even the Supreme Court has ordered the government to distribute the additional grain among the poor, free of cost, but the Congress Government is not ready to accept the decision."

"As per the reports of several committees about 82 crore people of the country are earning less than Rs. 20 per day," he added.

Gadkari blamed the Congress for promoting wrong economic policies and bad governance.

BJP leader and Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi said that under several Central Government schemes, every girl child of an underprivileged family is supposed to receive some cash, but this money is used to bribe the authorities to receive the amount.

On August 31, the Supreme Court had ordered that instead of allowing food grains to rot in godowns, should be distributed among the poor. Following the ruling, the Central Government decided to release an extra 2.5 million tonnes of foodgrains to various states for distribution among the poor.

According to media estimates, thousands of tonnes of grains were found spoiled in godowns on January 1 this year.

Between 1997 and 2007, 183,000 tonnes of wheat, 633,000 tonnes of rice, 220,000 tonnes of paddy and 111,000 tonnes of maize got rotten due to poor storage facility of the country. (ANI)