At 9%, Bengal has minimum food grain leakage, says report

Kolkata: Bengal is among the front runners in the country when it comes to minimum leakage of food grains with only 9 per cent, according to a report by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

“Before we (Trinamool Congress) assumed office in 2011, the leakage of food grains was 69.4 per cent. We have brought it down to 9 per cent in 2022-23, as per ICRIER report. States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat have higher leakage percentage of 33, 19.2 and 11.4 respectively,” said state Food and Supplies minister Rathin Ghosh in reply to a query from MLA Kalipada Mondal in the state Assembly.

Ghosh added that the digital system introduced in rationing to usher transparency has contributed to the minimum loss of food grains in the state.

The minister said that his department is developing an online platform so that the list of dealers with license of running ration shops is accessible to all in online mode. The move will weed out the involvement of middlemen demanding favour for license from dealers. Some complaints in this regard have been lodged with the department. The matter was also raised by Apurba Sarkar, TMC legislator from Kandi in Murshidabad.

The minister said that the department follows pre-decided parameters when it comes to granting licenses to dealers and distributors.

In response to Sarkar’s request for examining a special food grain package for the erosion-affected people of Malda and Murshidabad district, Ghosh said that the department will speak with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on this.

Presently, 56 lakh people in the state that includes residents of the Jangalmahal area, unwilling farmer families from Singur, families affected by Aila disaster, workers and their families from closed tea gardens, toto families and people living in hilly regions receive such special packages from the state government.