New Delhi: Food Corporation of India (FCI) has purchased 158 quintal wheat at Minimum Support Price (MSP) from three farmers since April 1 and has already cleared online payments of Rs. 3 lakh 13 thousand, FCI Delhi Region General Manager Sudhir Kumar said in a statement issued on Thursday. The FCI statement follows Delhi Government's Agriculture Minister Gopal Rai's claims that the Food Corporation has not opened a single counter for wheat procurement in Delhi, yet it has made false claims of purchasing the crops on MSP rates from April 1 this year.
FCI has opened three fully functional purchase centers at APMC Najafgarh Mandi, Food Storage Depot Narela (adjacent to Narela Mandi) and Food Storage Depot Mayapuri from April 1 onwards. FCI offers an MSP of Rs. 1975 per quintal as per Central Government norms. Refuting Rai's allegation, Kumar said that Delhi's Government's Joint Director (Agriculture) AP Saini was present with senior FCI officials when the wheat was purchased. Narela resident Dayanand, Sukhbir Singh of Panna village and Ladpur resident Subhash Chandra were the three farmers from whom FCI procured wheat and made payments, Kumar said.
Kumar also said that the Delhi Government has consistently been refusing the Food Corporation's repeated requests for information such as purchase targets, number and name of mandis. "FCI Regional Office Delhi has been following up with the Department of Civil Supplies as well as Department of Agriculture, Delhi Government, since January 19, 2021 followed by reminders to provide the information regarding making the arrangements for RMS 21-22", the statement read. "The Delhi Government has not made available requisite information to FCI". Kumar also said that the Delhi Government has stopped issuing Girdawari (an essential document of record) to farmers since the last two years, and even refused to issue replacement certificates upon his personal request.
"In spite of non-receipt of information and non-cooperation from Delhi Government, a target of 1000 MT for RMS 21-22 was fixed by this office after analyzing into the trend of the last 5 years where two purchase centers were identified as FSD Narela and FSD Mayapuri. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution fixed a procurement target of wheat for RMS 2021-22 at 50,000 MT between April 1 to May 31. It is pertinent to mention that no official of Delhi Government was present in the said meeting held on March 02".
"In a March 24 meeting, JD (Agriculture), Delhi Government has shown its inability to implement the Online Procurement Portal due to time constraint and it was mutually decided to open three purchase centers at FSD Narela, FSD Mayapuri and APMC Najafgarh Mandi. It was decided that the Procurement will be carried out on the basis of physical documents for which Farmers have to submit Aadhar Card, Land Record, Girdawari, Bank Details etc.".
Kumar also said that the FCI requested the Delhi Government to verify the actual area of cultivation in Delhi which has been increased from 298 Hectares in 2018-19 to 19,220 Hectares in 2019-20 as per official records. "Once wheat procurement began on April 1, the Delhi Government informed on April 6 that they have discontinued issuance of Girdawari and requested for alternate arrangements".
"In order to ensure the genuineness of farmers, it was mutually decided that farmers will produce the certificate issued by Competent State Authority mentioning about land details, agricultural produce along with the production. However, instead of providing the same to farmers, the Joint Director (Agriculture) requested for exemption of Khasra-Girdawari". However, FCI is bound by Central Government instructions and cannot purchase foodgrains in the absence of requisite documents. So, a request was sent to the Delhi Government to kindly issue Girdawari/Certificate to the farmers for smooth procurement operations, but to no avail.
During wheat procurement operations, some persons tried to pressure FCI staff into accepting wheat without proper documentation and under relaxed specifications. Till now, FCI/SGAs has purchased 9.46 LMT of wheat during Rabi 21-22 against a target of 427 LMT. FCI has also procured 700 LMT of paddy during KMS 20-21.