Establish grievance redressal mechanism for farmers in distress: Goyal to FCI

New Delhi, Jan 14: Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday asked the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to establish a grievance redressal mechanism so that the government can rapidly react to the farmers and farmer producer organisations in distress.

"Establish a grievance redressal mechanism to react rapidly to farmer/Farmer Producer Organisation in distress. Reaching out to farmers through 'Jan Jagrukta' programmes at grass-root level to spread awareness," the Minister said as he listed out five principles to better FCI's progress on the occasion of its 58th foundation day.

The Minister asked to change the public perception of FCI from being inefficient and corrupt to dynamic, inclusive and honest.

"Focus on integrating end-to-end tech solutions right from procurement to delivery to achieve operational efficiency and leakage free distribution, reduce PDS response time, beneficiary tracking etc.," he said.

Goyal asked to plan for modern infrastructure and logistics. "Upgrade warehouses to international standards. Improve storage capacity for the growing need - power back-up, CCTV, robust network facility," he said.

Underlining the fact that FCI is the main central agency for execution of food policies of the government, Goyal said that FCI has come a long way in realising the dream of India being a self-sufficient nation.

Praising, the way FCI has carried out the world's largest food supply chain system especially during the pandemic to ensure seamless supply of foodgrains under the "Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana", the Minister said that FCI has not only become an important organisation but also one of the most valuable organisations having stood in testing times.

"Today, FCI procures nearly 1,300 LMT of wheat and paddy annually against nearly 13 LMT procured during 1965. Similarly, distribution across the country has increased from about 18 LMT in 1965 to nearly 600 LMT. Even the storage capacity from 6 LMT in 1965 has increased to over 800 LMT now," Goyal said, highlighting the journey of FCI.

He said that the statistics reflects how FCI has taken responsibility but also indicates that there's scope of better transparency. He directed to prepare a layout on how to strengthen better delivery to the people of the nation.

"We keep talking about the green revolution, I & II. But as the Honourable Prime Minister said, the goal should be 'Evergreen revolution' - Food security is not enough, focus should be on Nutritional Security," Goyal averred.

He said that it's important that emphasis should be on improving India's rating in the Global Hunger index.

This could be achieved by adding more nutritional value in people's diet, he added.