Silos to be used for safe food grain storage: Haryana minister

The Haryana government is planning to use silos for safe storage of food grains, its minister Karan Dev Kamboj said today.
Briefing reporters here today regarding his recent visit to South Africa and Mauritius to study the silos technique, the Haryana's food and civil supplies minister said the state government is exploring possibilities regarding this and a high-level delegation from the two nations would visit Haryana in September.
Kamboj said he had also visited Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh earlier and studied about safe storage of food grains.
He said that apart from steel, silos are also made of fibre in Mauritius and South Africa.

Kamboj said that the central government had given approval for construction of godowns of 9.5 lakh metric tonnes capacity, out of which godowns of 3 lakh metric tonnes would be constructed by Food Corporation of India and of 6.5 lakh metric tonnes would be constructed by agencies of Haryana.
Replying to a question regarding reports of supply of poor quality pulses under public distribution system, Kamboj said that soon action would be taken against the agency concerned and guilty would not be spared.

The work to supply ration is allotted to agencies through e-tendering under public distribution system, he added.

He said there was requirement of godowns with capacity of 120 lakh metic tonnes in Haryana and about one-third of this capacity was stored in open.
The minister said that for a long time, traditional godowns have been constructed in Haryana and foodgrains in huge quantity were being stored in open area. With the construction of silos, food grains would be stored in safe and covered area, he added.