New Delhi: The Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday said the Government will invest around Rs 1,280 crore to upgrade infrastructure of existing godowns of state-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC).
The Government is making use of latest technologies to bring transparency, improve efficiencies and curb leakages in public distribution system (PDS), he said, adding that the overall objective is to supply quality foodgrains to over 80 crore people through the ration shops under the National Food Security Act.
Addressing a conference here, Joshi said there are currently 2,278 godowns, which includes owned and hired.
He said FCI will invest Rs 1,000 crore while the CWC Rs 280 crore on the infrastructure upgrade of their own godowns.
This will help in huge saving for both FCI and CWC by reducing losses at various levels, Joshi said.
On the sidelines of the conference, Joshi said the Centre will make these investments for improvement in technology and infrastructure in these godowns.
He asserted that the Government is fully prepared for storage and distribution of foodgrains during any exigencies.
Joshi said the government has ample stock of rice and wheat in its godowns and food inflation is also under control.
The minister said the Government is also increasing the storage capacities across the country. The Co-operation Ministry is creating 700 lakh tonne of storage capacities with an investment of over Rs 1 lakh crore, he added.
Joshi also launched three mobile applications --Depot Darpan, Anna Mitra and Anna Sahayata -- to improve efficiencies in the PDS.
Observing that there are some "black sheep" and "greedy people" in the system, Joshi said these three apps would help in curbing the leakages and reducing wastage.
FCI, the government's nodal agency for the procurement and distribution of foodgrains, alone moves 420 lakh tonne of foodgrains annually. There are around 5.3 lakh ration shops in the country.
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