Govt ropes in 3 private players for rice procurement

The Centre has ropped in three private players including NCML this year for rice procurement on cluster basis in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The Union Food Ministry has prepared a policy to engage private players for foodgrains procurement through competitive bidding process acting on the recommendations of high-level committee of the state-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI).
Presently, state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies undertake procurement of foodgrains, which are used for distributed through ration shops to the poor.
These three companies are National Collateral Management Services Ltd (NCMSL), Veerprabhu Marketing Ltd and Farmers Fortune (India) Pvt Ltd, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

"These players have been engaged to expand the coverage of minimum support price (MSP) operations to such identified clusters of districts/parts of the district, where outreach of government agencies has been weak and state governments have consented for FCI to engage the private agencies to reach out to the paddy farmers for improvement," Paswan said.
He said proper arrangements have been put in place to monitor the work of these private agencies.

For instance, the minister said FCI will verify the payment of MSP has been made by the private parties within two working days through electronic mode before reimbursement to private players.

The private players are bound to furnish daily procurement reports to FCI, which has the right to inspect purchase centers, storage points and miller premises. The quality checking of rice will be carried out by FCI at the time of acceptance at its depots, he added.
Paswan said FCI will evaluate the performance of private players and impose commensurate penalty on them for their acts of omissions and commissions.
In Uttar Pradesh, NCML has been given a cluster to procure rice from four districts -- Ballia, Mau, Ghazipur and Chandauli. Veerpradhu Marketing Ltd has been awarded a covering Allahabad, Kausambhi, Pratapgarh and Sultanpur.

Similarly, Farmers Fortune (India) Pvt has been given a cluster covering Ambedkarnagar, Basti Sant Kabirnagar and Siddarthnagar, the Minister said in the Upper House.
In Jharkhand, NCML has been given two clusters covering districts -- South Chottanagar and Kolhan.
In West Bengal, Veerprabhu Marketing Ltd has been awared four clusters covering Bankura, Burdwan, Dinajpur and Siliguri districts, the Minister added.
However in Assam, Paswan said, "As our rounds of tenders in Assam did not evoke any response, the procurement is being undertaken by FCI and state government."
So far, FCI and state agencies have procured 28 million tonnes of rice in the 2015-16 marketing year starting October. The government expects rice purchases to exceed the last year's level of 32 million tonnes.