Parl panel urges govt to rope in more states for grain procurement scheme

New Delhi: Suggesting the government to motivate states for adopting Decentralised Procurement (DCP) system for foodgrains, the Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, which is led by Sudip Bandyopadhyay, has asked the government to take "proactive steps" to encourage more states to adopt the DCP system as even after 23 years of inception, only eight states have adopted the DCP scheme for wheat and 15 states for rice.

Notably, under the DCP scheme, foodgrains are procured and distributed by the state governments themselves. The designated DCP states procure, store and issue foodgrains under public distribution system (PDS) and other welfare schemes of the Government of India.

In its 13th report, which was tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the committee said, "In its action taken reply, the ministry has merely stated that the government is making all out efforts for implementing the scheme in all the states."

The ministry has not apprised the committee about any suitable reasons for not adopting the scheme by the remaining states and union territories or any difficulty faced by them, it noted.

"The Committee, therefore, reiterated their earlier recommendation and urged the Ministry to take proactive steps to encourage remaining states/UTs to adopt the scheme and suggest remedial measures for the problem, if any, coming in the way of adoption of the scheme under intimation to the committee," it said.

As per the ministry, 16 states are undertaking DCP of rice. They include Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Andaman and Nicobar, and Tripura. While, nine states have adopted the DCP of wheat. They are Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.

In the matter of action against errant officials, the Committee found that the reply is silent about the status of cases of major and minor offences (till date) that have been disposed of.

The Committee has also asked the ministry to expedite disposal of remaining three complaints against GM (FCI, Haryana) and all other pending major and minor cases to prevent corruption in FCI. It also asked the ministry to frame a strong policy for transfer of officers/staff within a fixed time frame to contain the corruption.