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Call to strengthen PDS

KANNUR: The Bharatiya Khadya Karmachari Sangh (Food Corporation of India Employees’ Union) has urged the Central government to take steps to strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) in the country.

The ‘universal PDS’ system should replace the existing ‘targeted PDS’ in view of the record procurement of foodgrains, union president V.M. Damodaran said in a press release here on Tuesday.

The FCI and other government agencies had carried out record procurement for the PDS by purchasing 262.39 lakh tonnes of rice and 223.47 lakh tonnes of wheat as on June 30 as against 242.53 lakh tonnes of rice and 110.82 lakh tonnes wheat last year, he said.

This achievement was due to the hiking of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the ban on forward trading/export of foodgrains that discouraged private traders and multinational corporations from purchasing large quantities of the surplus grains directly from farmers, he observed.

Referring to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s recent announcement that the government had set aside nearly three million tonnes of wheat for market intervention, with open sale at a price lower than the market rate, Mr. Damodaran said such a decision would only benefit private traders.

It should be distributed through ration shops, Mr. Damodaran said.

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