Thomas assures Hooda of support in increasing wheat movement

The Centre has assured the Haryana government of all support in speeding up the movement of wheat from the state.

The assurance was given by Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, K V Thomas to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda during a meeting.

Hooda had raised the issue with the minister in Delhi to speed up the movement of food grain stock out of the state in view of the huge wheat stock lying with the state, an official release said.

Wheat procurement in Haryana has reached an all time high at 86.47 lakh metric tonnes against the projected lifting of 70 lakh tonne.

The state agencies are also holding old stock of foodgrains to the tune of 67.18 lakh metric tonnes as on April 1, 2012. It is expected that the procurement of rice and bajra during Kharif 2012 would be around 21 lakh metric tonnes.

As a result, the total foodgrains kitty is expected to touch 174.65 lakh metric tonnes during the year 2012-13 against the total storage capacity of about 84.23 lakh metric tonnes.