Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Food Corporation of India (FCI) which is completing its 58 years of its establishment would soon have a huge capacity spoke silo plant in Ujjain.
Addressing a press conference, divisional manager Anil Kumar Verma here on Tuesday said that the FCI has played a role in making India self-sufficient with complete transparency, efficiency and accountability in terms of food security.
He said the government has prepared an action plan for the construction of steel silos under public private partnership mode in the country for the upgradation and modernisation of storage facilities.
Ten spoke silos with an aggregate capacity of 4.25 LMT under DBFOO mode in the MP region will be constructed in Ujjain, Dhar, Panna, Seoni, Satna, Guna, Rajgarh, Agar-Malwa, Damoh and Shyopur. In the first phase, silos are to be constructed at four places viz Guna, Dhar, Damoh and Ujjain, whose tender proceedings are under process, the officer said.
The FCI was established under the Food Security Act of 1964 to fulfil the objectives of the food policy. It aimed at the operation of an effective support price to safeguard the interests of the farmers and the dstribution of food grains across the country under the public distribution system (PDS). To ensure the national food security, operation of food grains and maintaining a satisfactory level of buffer stock.
Verma said that the FCI is always ready to serve the entire nation. It has been providing its services, playing an important role in transporting foodgrain from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Kutch to Kohima. It is playing a leading role in the development of the country by procuring wheat and paddy from farmers across the country at the minimum support price. FCI is associated with all the states of the country and with 5 zonal offices, 26 regional offices and 164 divisional offices. Along with purchase from farmers, it has been providing wheat and rice to all states for distribution in the PDS and other welfare schemes.
When the country was fighting against Covid 19 pandemic from March 24, 2020, around 82 crore beneficiaries were provided free wheat and rice under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana across the country. Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana came into force from the month of April 2020 and is continuing and every beneficiary of India is taking advantage of this scheme.
