2023-07-10 15:11:57
Amidst the controversy over poor offtake in open sales and FCI’s denial to Karnataka’s request for additional rice, the Centre on Monday said it has got support of Food Ministers of 16 out of 17 States including Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand on the rice allocation and sales policy. The poor offtake in the open sales e-auction was explained by way of a “possible lack of awareness” among buyers.
Blames Karnataka
“All the States except one supported our policy and made it clear that it could not be made keeping interest of only one State,” Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra told reporters in an oblique reference to Karnataka’s isolation on the issue at the Food Ministers’ meeting held last week.
The issue put before the ministerial conference was whether the Central Pool stock should be used for retail operation to correct (reduce) the market price or to supplement the allocation to certain States for more distribution to NFSA beneficiaries.
Highlighting that the current annual requirement of rice for distribution through ration shops and other welfare schemes is 360 lakh tonnes (lt), Chopra said: “If all the States demand extra allocation of same quantity, the requirement will be of 720 lt whereas the annual rice procurement is only 560-570 lt.”
Food Corporation of India (FCI) sold only 170 tonnes or 0.04 per cent of 3.86 lt of rice offered in the first auction under the open market sale scheme (OMSS) on July 5.
Chopra said the signal is very important, even though there is tepid response and the government is open to make necessary changes, if required. Asked how the availability would go up without ensuring offtake, he said, “It (rice auction) has just begun, there are nine months to go. We will wait and watch.” He also said that the rice auction is being held for the first time in many years as earlier only wheat was auctioned in open market. Probably people are not much aware and FCI has been taking steps to increase awareness (among buyers), he added.
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Published on July 10, 2023
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