Bihar criticises 'laxity' by FCI

The Bihar government today alleged that there was laxity by Food Corporation of India in taking custom-milled rice of paddy (CMR) procured by the state and decided to draw the attention of the Centre to it.
"Despite assurance of senior officers of FCI on taking CMR, laxity could be seen among corporation officials," Bihar Food minister Shayam Rajak said.
He told a review meeting of his department that the FCI which targetted to collect 88,290 tonne CMR every week was not meeting the goal.
"Last week only 45,198 tonne CMR was taken by FCI which is half the target set," he said in a statement.

October 31, 2013 is the last date for giving CMR to FCI.
"If the things go with this speed in FCI it will be impossible to achieve the target," the minister said.

Accusing the FCI to be indifferent, Rajak said if the CMR for which target has been set was not taken the responsibility would lie with the FCI.
Rajak said that if any sort of lacunae was found among state food corporation officials then action would be taken against them.
The minister also took stock of the pace of digitisation of ration cards.
He was told that the data entry of 2.40 crore ration cards had to be done of which 2.05 crore data entries were made.