Govt accepts Capt's plan to resolve Rs 31,000 cr food account loan issue

New Delhi: Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday accepted the request of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to hold a joint meeting with the Union Finance Minister to resolve the Rs 31,000 crore food account loan legacy issue.

According to an official spokesperson, Paswan agreed to organise the meeting after the Union Budget session when the Punjab CM called on the minister on Thursday.

"The Union Minister has also agreed to allow Punjab to create additional storage space to enable the state to address the problem of acute shortage of storage space in this rabi season. Modalities for the same will soon be worked out," the spokesperson said.

During his meeting, the Chief Minister pointed out the Rs 31,000 crore food loan legacy issue, inherited from the previous government, had already been referred to a special committee headed by NITI Aayog Member Ramesh Chand, who is also the Member of 15th Finance Commission. The Committee had been mandated to look into all aspects of the legacy debt of Punjab government arising out of accumulated CCL (food credit gap) with reference to FCI.

Expressing concern over the slow movement of stocks, the Punjab CM also told Paswan that the state government was grappling with acute shortage of storage space for foodgrain.

"The CM also mentioned that state agencies were currently stocking 160 lakh MT of wheat and 107 lakh MT of rice, while 96 lakh MT of

wheat was lying in the open and 10.5 lakh MT of wheat purchased more than a year ago was still being stocked in the open," he added.