FCI to ramp up its infrastructure in NE to implement Food Security Act

Food Corporation of India (FCI) is in the process of augmenting its infrastructure in North-East to implement the National Food Security Act.

The corporation will soon have a full fledged administrative setup in Guwahati, besides 20 other projects under implementation in other North-Eastern states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. The projects will collectively augment the storage capacity of FCI by about 1,25,060 metric tonnes (MT), out of which 53,000 MT is likely to be completed by March 2014.

There are 77 FCI depots operational with capacity of 4,68,000 MT in North-East presently.The foundation stone of FCI's administrative building was laid yesterday in Guwahati by Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi in the presence of KV Thomas, Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution.

Thomas had a meeting with food ministers of North-Eastern states, including Sikkim, in Guwahati to review the preparedness for implementation of the National Food Security Act in the region. Thomas said the eight North-Eastern states would be in a position to implement the programme by March 2014.

"Not only allocation of food grains of all the North-Eastern states under National Food Security Act would be higher than what they are currently receiving for BPL and AAY households under existing TPDS, it will also be at highly subsidised prices of Rs 2 or 3 per Kg for wheat and rice respectively whereas existing issue price for BPL allocation is much higher," said Thomas. "The Act provides for protection of average off take of food grains of last 3 years. The existing APL households which are not likely to be covered under the Act may also be covered out of the tide over allocation to be provided at existing APL prices to protect the average off take. Therefore in terms of foodgrains allocation, all the states stand to gain," added Thomas.