Farmers will not lose if pvt players procure foodgrains: Govt

Farmers will not lose if private companies are allowed to procure foodgrains from them, government said today seeking to allay Opposition apprehensions over the issue.
Replying to questions in Rajya Sabha on whether private parties have been allowed to procure foodgrains, Minister of Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said "farmers will not lose if private companies are allowed to procure".
"Government has a policy to allow private parties to procure the foodgrain for central pool. However, they are not being actually engaged at the moment, as Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government agencies are already providing adequate procurement coverage to the farmers in various states," he said.

Asked to name the private players who were allowed to procure foodgrains, the quantity and price of foodgrains procured by them and whether these include ITC, Cargill and Adani, Paswan said "the private companies that have been named are not into it."
At the same time, he said,"whenever any such thing happens, it will be done through tenders. We will not allow farmers to incur losses. ... I have already said that farm produces are also purchased by agencies of state governments and Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS)."
A report had it that private companies like ITC, Cargill and Adani have suggested to the FCI to invest in new technology for procurement, storage and movement of grains in the Northeastern states.

During the proceedings, the government also agreed to a short discussion on the issue of food procurement by FCI and related issues raised by the Opposition members, who claimed that the Minister was not answering the questions properly.

Paswan dismissed contentions that there was plan to reduce coverage of the Food Security law to 40 per cent of the population from 67 per cent, asserting that the government has "rejected" Shanta Kumar committee's suggestion in this regard.
In a supplementary, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad wanted to know what would happen to the remaining 27 per cent of population if the committee report was implemented and whether it was a panel appointed by the government or FCI.

To this, Paswan said "we have rejected that. The question does not arise of this...There is nowhere any question about reducing it.