Jaipur citizens protest over supply of rotten grains

JAIPUR - People of Jaipur staged a protest at the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godown demanding the distribution of tonnes of unused food grains.

Carrying placards and banners the protestors raised slogans in front of the godown.

Some social workers also joined in support the protestors.

“Why don’t they give it at a cheaper price. It should be given to the slum dwellers, poor farmers, and migrants. We are staging this demonstration in front of the FCI godown as it is shameful that the grains are getting rotten and people die of hunger and malnutrition.” said Kavita Shrivastava, a social worker.

People also complained of poor quality of food, provided to them.

“Why is there a discrimination between the BPL and the green grains? They are distributing 90 kilograms of grains to the green grains and 25 kilograms to the BPL families. This biased approach should be abolished. All should be treated equally. Poor quality of sugar and wheat is being given to us.,” said Gayatri, a protestor.

The apex court on August 31 had ordered that instead of allowing the food grains to rot in godowns, it should be distributed among the poor. Following the ruling, the central government decided to release an extra 2.5 million tonnes of food grains to various states for distribution among the poor.

According to media estimates, thousands of tonnes of grains were found spoiled in godowns on January 1 this year.

Between 1997 and 2007, 183,000 tonnes of wheat, 633,000 tonnes of rice, 220,000 tonnes of paddy and 111,000 tonnes of maize got rotten due to poor storage facility of the country. (ANI)