CM decries FCI officials' behaviour

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 15. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Friday poured out his anger at the Food Corporation of India officials saying they were behaving in a ``non- cooperative, unfair and irresponsible'' manner by giving out ``misleading, confusing and contradictory orders,'' for procurement of paddy and rice in the State.

At a press conference, Mr. Naidu, who appeared upset, said he felt bad that while the Union Food Minister, Mr. Shanta Kumar, and top FCI and Civil Supplies officials, some of whom had visited the State twice, gave assurances of Punjab-type procurement in the State, the zonal officials here ``behaved differently''. He said the zonal FCI officials were creating obstacles in the procurement process by issuing ``misleading'' orders asking their field officers to treat Swarna Masuri, 1001 and MTU varieties of paddy as common variety and not as Grade A, as agreed upon earlier. Similarly, they were raising objections and rejecting the quantum of admixture in the boiled rice variety.

To a question, he blamed both FCI officials in Delhi and Hyderabad for the confusion in procurement and wondered why they were showing reluctance. He said he had requested the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. G. M. C. Balayogi, and the Telugu Desam MPs to take up the issue with the Minister and the officials concerned in Delhi.

Asked why the State Government was not taking over the job from the FCI, he said it lacked the required wherewithal. It had only two agencies - the Civil Supplies Corporation and the MARKFED - with limited resources. The former was already into rice procurement and the latter, which was now busy with procurement of maize, would be diverted for procuring rice. ``All we can do is to intensify and we are doing just that.'' The FCI had expertise in procurement of foodgrains and it can handle the job better.

Mr. Naidu said his Government aimed at bringing to the above the poverty line about 40 lakh poor families during the next four to five years through different schemes costing Rs. 3,500 crores. It was for realisation of this goal that the AP Poverty Eradication Mission had been constituted and its first meeting was held on Friday.

He said the mission would advise on how to reorient the poverty eradication strategies for time-bound achievement, bring about convergence and integrate the activities of the self-help groups and panchayats besides taking up people centred participatory approaches.

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Section  : Southern States
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