Kerala - Kannur   

FCI employees to join strike

Staff Reporter

KANNUR: The Bharatiya Khadya Nigam Karamchari Sangh (Food Corporation of India Employees' Union) said it would participate in the nation-wide general strike on December 14.

In a press release here, Sangh president V.M. Damodaran said the Union Government had permitted even multinational companies to procure wheat from farmers. During the last crop season, these agencies had purchased the bulk of the wheat stocks from farmers by offering them incentives of Rs.10 to Rs.20 a quintal more than the maximum support price fixed by the Government. As a result, Government agencies could not procure sufficient quantity of wheat for meeting the public distribution system (PDS) requirements and maintaining the national buffer, he said.

Mr. Damodaran said the Government's belated announcement offering an incentive of Rs.50 a quintal to farmers had not brought the desired results.

The PDS in the country was already on the verge of collapse by dividing consumers into APL (above poverty line) and BPL (below poverty line), he said.

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