Chandigarh : Punjab Food and Supply Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon today condemned the Centre for sanctioning storage for only 4.5 lakh tonnes to the state against its demand for storage capacity of 50.52 lakh tonnes across the country. Addressing mediapersons at Chandigarh Press Club, Kairon said, “We want the Centre to pay attention to our storage requirement as shortage of adequate storage capacity could lead to heavy losses.” Kairon said, “Out of the total bids (for creating 50.52 lakh tonnes of additional storage capacity) submitted by the state, the Centre has approved bids to create mere 4.5 lakh tonnes and bids for 14-15 lakh tonnes have been put on counter offer and the rest is pending.” He said Punjab had received 521 bids for creation of 50.52 lakh tonnes of new storage space in the state. He said, “The centre is aware that Punjab needs 80 lakh tonnes of storage capacity but it decided to build only 70 lakh tonnes of new capacities. The Centre decided on paper that Punjab needs not 70 lakh tonnes but only 50-52 lakh tonnes. At the same time it allowed Punjab to create 4.5 lakh tonnes of additional storage.” The state is facing a shortage of storing 80 lakh tonnes of foodgrain storage capacity against the present capacity of 200 lakh tonnes of storage comprising 95 lakh tonnes of covered space and rest as Covered Area Plinth (CAP). Kairon said the state had approached the Planning Commission to review the list of BPL families in Punjab. He said only nine per cent of the total population are BPL families, which adds up to 4.62 lakh.
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