Ric stocks pile up on rail rake shortage

Old stock of rice has piled up in the godowns of Food Corporation of India (FCI) in Chhattisgarh, preventing the fresh stock to find a room for safe storage.

The shortage of sufficient rail rakes has been cited as the main reason for clearing the old stock from the FCI godowns located in different places in the state. With the arrival of fresh stock, the state government officials are in a fix to arrange rooms for storing the rice.

"The Chief Minister, Raman Singh, on Monday wrote a letter to Rail Minister Dinesh Trivedi and drew his attention towards the problem faced due to non-availability of sufficient rail rakes," a state government spokesperson said. Singh has urged the Rail Minister to give preference to the state for providing rakes.

In his letter, Singh said that the FCI had requested the rail authorities for providing 124 rakes in the month of January. "But the railway has provided only 50 rakes and has given least priority to Chhattisgarh's FCI demand," Singh said, adding that the rail ministry should take up the matter on top priority.

The FCI godowns located in Chhattisgarh had been supplying rice under public distribution system in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. Following the non-availability of rakes, the FCI is unable to supply rice to these states that has resulted in piling up of old stock in the godowns.

The huge quantity of old stock in the FCI godowns has put the state authorities in a fix. For, the custom milling of rice in the state that is set to procure 5.5 Million Tonnes of paddy in this kharif marketing season. The state-own Marketing Federation officials said that there was no room left to stock the fresh arrival of rice.