Rotten food grains or Death due to starving - which one you prefer ?

Sometimes, I really run out of issues to blog about. But the very next moment comes knocking on my head, saying "dude, you are in India !" Oh, I really forgot and am never out of any issue. Corruption is a well- defined  issue in my last articles, but corruption in food system in a developing country like ours, is really a tension to be concerned about. One report showed dogs eating grain in UP, where poverty and malnourishment are rampant. Another showed sacks of wheat in Punjab rotting away outside warehouses. A third caught officials trying to burn grain because they hadn't been able to distribute it to families entitled to free rations.

These are really stunning and one would have surely be blaming the conditions there. But the fact is just not that. The farmers mainly in Punjab and Haryana, are producing grains and they get to sell them at mere prices, but the mediator sells that to market in comparatively very high rates.

The problems don't occur with this fact only. The food grains are kept in store-houses in surplus amounts and made to be sold to multinational agencies or industries for making beverages, pizza, burgers, etc. How ridiculous the matter can be ! On the one hand, poor people are dying starving because the grains are not available in the ration, but on the other side, enough is there in the store-houses to get rotten or to be sold to the the companies. This reminds me of the story I have read at childhood, when a queen asks why the common people eat rotis when bread is available in the market. Very sarcastic !

Now I must report an incident that went unheeded by us. On February 5 2010, The Food Corporation of India had sent 1,100 quintals of wheat to be distributed in Khandwa's ration shops. Three days later, 39 wagons of the wheat reached the station but one wagon went missing. The FCI claimed compensation for the missing stock.

Now, six months later, when the missing wagon was found, it was found that it had 85 quintals of wheat, that were rotted beyond repair. Those 85 quintals would have easily fed 250 Below Poverty Level (BPL) families for at least a month.You don't believe? Check it here.

Earlier this month, aggravated by reports that showed food grain rotting because warehouses aren't big enough or plenty enough for storage - the Supreme Court had asked Pawar to give away  grain  to poor families instead of wasting it. The Supreme Court told the Additional Solicitor General, "Tell your minister that free food distribution is our order - not a suggestion - by us."

India does not have enough surplus stocks of food grains for exports in the short-term and the country needs to boost its farm production significantly to meet the expected rise in domestic demand by 2020, a top official of FCI. Now the picture around doesn't depict this at all. Google for the images if you don't believe.

Despite all the assurances, it cannot be negated that there was a huge stock that had to burn, ironically in one of India's hungriest states where 60% children are malnourished and 7 percent die in hunger-related diseases, due to sheer negligence and carelessness. That would always put once stop on us and think over the issue.

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Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/supreme-court-free-food-grain-is-our-order-not-suggestion-48460?cp

Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/india-lacks-in-foodgrains-stocks-for-exports-fc-125946?cp

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/supreme-court-free-food-grain-is-our-order-not-suggestion-48460?cp