The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : VS protests against Central move to auction rice

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

VS protests against Central move to auction rice

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Friday protested against the Central government’s decision to auction rice in the open market while denying allocations to the State government for public distribution.

The Chief Minister said that the FCI godowns were now flush with grains procured directly and through State governments. The buffer stock now was a record with 27 million tonnes of rice and 22.5 million tonnes of wheat. The godowns in the State had stocks of more than four lakh tonnes. Still, allocations to Kerala had been stopped.

Mr. Achuthanandan noted that the Centre was now saying that it could provide rice to the State only if it procured rice to the Central pool at Rs.8.5 a kg. First of all, the State did not have rice to supply to the Central pool. Secondly, the procurement price in the State was Rs.10 a kg. The quantity thus procured would have to be converted into rice and sold within the State. Still, the State had supplied 85,000 tonnes to the Central pool at a heavy loss.

The Centre wanted the State to provide more rice to the Central pool whereas it promised to allocate only 17,000 tonnes to the State from the Central pool. This meant that the State would have to provide rice to be auctioned in the open market.

He recalled that the Centre had contended earlier that it did not have stocks to allocate to the State. The Union Ministers from Kerala and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy had repeated this stand.

However, now the Centre had record stocks. It was planning to sell that in the open market with a view to undermining the public distribution system.

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