Punjab food dept staff’s stir hits grain supply, states suffer
CHANDIGARH: The ongoing strike by the officers and staff of food and civil supplies of Punjab has deepened the food grain availability crisis in the five consumer states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, where stocks are fast depleting, FCI officials said.
“Generally, the consumer states keep stocks of about a week to ten days, but now these states are worried as Punjab, a regular supplier of grain to these states, has stopped sending any,” said Hemant Jain, general manager (Punjab) food corporation of India (FCI), the Centre’s
agency that drives wheat and rice for public distribution across the country.
He added that the paddy crop harvest in these above-mentioned states is about to begin, and shelling rice would take at least a month.
Against a daily movement of 75,000 to 80,000 tonnes of food grain (wheat and rice) from Punjab, the state could only transport about 20,000 tonnes from FCI’S stocks - which is way too little for the needs of these states till the local crop in these states starts arriving for public consumption.
As per a daily average of at least 35 special goods trains loaded for transporting food grain from Punjab to consumer states, after the strike only 12-14 special trains have moved out.
FCI has about 4 lakh tonnes of rice and 1.75 lakh tonnes of wheat stored in its godowns in Punjab. FCI also has stocks in other states, however, the movement at a fast pace to consumer states is difficult from there.
In Punjab, 23 lakh tonnes of wheat and 35 lakh tonnes of rice are in stores, and apart from this, the country has wheat stocks of about 150 lakh tonnes and 105 lakh tonnes of rice.
Reportedly FCI’S top management took up the matter with the state’s top brass for early resolution of the matter. FCI’S chairman-cum-managing director Ashok Kumar K Meena on Monday took up the matter with the state government for resolution of the matter at the earliest.
According to Punjab chief secretary VK Janjua, the food department staff and officers are expected to resume work from Wednesday. “Hopefully, things will return to normal tomorrow, and loading of food grain stocks would begin from tomorrow,” added Janjua.
The indefinite strike call was given by a joint action committee (JAC) of the state food and civil supplies department and four state-owned procurement agencies on November 23, after the arrest of two officers of the rank of district food and civil supplies controller then posted in Ludhiana in connection with the ₹2,000-crore food grain transportation scam.
The department’s staff – from the level of clerks to inspectors, assistant food and supplies officers, DFSCS and field deputy directors across the state – announced to move on an indefinite strike the same day.
The two officers – Sukhwinder Singh Gill and Harveen Kaur – who in the past were posted at Ludhiana, the home district of former food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu during the Congress party regime, are accused of irregularities in the tenders for movement of food grains. The vigilance bureau has already presented a charge sheet against Ashu, who remains in judicial custody.
The officers and staff today held a protest outside the department’s state headquarters Anaj Bhawan here.
According to Tarwinder Singh Chopra, a deputy director rank officer and member of the JAC, their first and foremost demand is the withdrawal of the vigilance case against the two officers.
“All cases under investigation with the state vigilance bureau should be stopped and handed over to the food department and a fresh investigation started by the vigilance bureau into the purchase of wooden crates for storing food grain bags should also be shifted to the department,” he said.