Food Corporation of India Chairman and Managing Director C Viswanath, who is on a two-day visit to Jharkhand, on Monday reviewed the Corporation's preparedness to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the state.
"Jharkhand will receive increased allocation of food grains under the new NFSA," Viswanath said.
"Besides making food grains available to Jharkhand, we will substantially augment the storage capacity of the state," he added.
At present, FCI has a storage capacity of about 1.46 lMT in Jharkhand. It will increase the capacity to 6.00 lMT by undertaking construction of new godowns in the state under the Private Entrepreneurs Godown Scheme.
Recently, the state government assisted in obtaining land for Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) at Suriya (10,000 MT), Giridih (10,000 MT), Dumka (7,000 MT) and Sahebganj (5,000 MT) for construction of storage capacity under PEG, where FCI had not received any valid response in any tender.
The Jharkhand government has also been requested to provide land to CWC at Pakur, Godda, Dumka, Barharwa/Teenpahar, Chandil, Chakradharpur, Chaibasa, etc.
Recently, FCI has started rake handling capacity at Dumka and Madhupur, reducing dependency on Jasidih railhead. In the near future, two new railheads are to be utilised at lohardaga and Dhalbhumgarh.
During the review meeting with the Principal Secretary (HRD), Govt. of Jharkhand, FCI requested the state government to clear its pending claims under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme at the earliest.