National attention is riveted on news reports whenever they are made sensational by the media and with time, the issues raised are forgotten leaving every body "happy"! This may be true in all countries but in a country like India even news about rotting of valuable foods under the custody of the government does not evoke any revulsion amongst the population, except some bad feelings for a couple of days. Other wise it is hard to explain the lethargy on the part of the government in properly securing the surplus food grains through appropriate policies and determined action. The track record of the government whether it is NDA- led or UPA- controlled, is at best dismal in this regard as brought out by successive expose in the national media. The political parties which administered this country during the last two decades owe an explanation to the often "ignored" "aam admi" as to what prevented them while ruling the country from building adequate storage facilities for safe guarding the quality of the food procured at enormous cost. Is it not a shame that the judiciary has to intervene to indict the government for its "inexcusable" dereliction of duty by grossly mismanaging the country's food grain security? Here is another instance of total apathy to the problem by the present administrators which is indeed abominable.
Even as the Sharad Pawar-headed ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution has come under a hailstorm of criticism over rotting food grains, a Rs 7,000-crore proposal to build additional climate-controlled storage capacity has been gathering dust. Preliminary discussions are yet to take place on a July proposal to float a special purpose vehicle to build additional storage and lease capacity from private entrepreneurs. The ministry estimates that the country needs an additional storage capacity of 17 million tonnes. "As of now, we need additional storage capacity of 17 million metric tonnes," minister of state KV Thomas said. India's agricultural production has risen sharply, leaving storage capacity far behind. Currently, 87 million tonnes of grain is being stored by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC). The task of shoring up storage capacity, however, is facing two important issues. For one, the pace at which CWC is adding capacity, lags the growth in demand by a huge margin. The public sector unit plans to build 91,050 tonnes of capacity during 2009-10 and 177,300 tonnes during 2010-11. Food Corporation of India is not currently building additional capacity. FCI's efforts to spur private investment in warehousing by guaranteeing a ten-year lease period has also met with lukewarm responses. Sources in the ministry said many prospective investors are discouraged by the stringent terms and conditions. The proposal for a special purpose vehicle that can work outside the existing administrative framework and fast track the building and leasing of storage capacity took shape after a delegation from the ministry visited China in June, to study the massive strides that country has made in food storage technology. The delegation comprised of the heads of both FCI and CWC, apart from Thomas and others.
It is a shame that hordes of politicians and bureaucrats have to go on countless "jaunts" every now and then to China to marvel at this country's massive achievement in building grain storage facilities and then promptly forget about the issue after returning to the country. Recently when some critics suggested that those responsible must be "hanged" for their crime against Indians through negligence, it was deplored by the very same politicians saying that India does not have a "Kangaroo Court" system or Indians are not "Talibans" to resort to such "barbaric"way of crime punishment. But do the honest citizens of this country deserve a "Kangaroo Government" working with no logic, responsibility and accountability? Raising their own salaries and perquisites periodically for their so called "service" and "sacrifice" seems to get more priority than attending to problems of the people they are supposed to serve! Can it be that "the people get the government they deserve"? But what option the people of this country have when their choice is limited between "the devil and the deep sea", considering that all political parties are of the same color when it comes to "performance" ?. Probably building more temples, churches and mosques and making more prayers to the "Almighty" with eternal hope for a better tomorrow seem to be the only recourse left to the Indian citizen!
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