Rotting wheat stocks

THE saga of damaged wheat grains weighing nearly 45,000 metric tonnes and worth Rs 83 crore that could have fed lakhs of people is, sadly, more than just the story of precious foodgrains being left to rot in open plinths at Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Fatehabad in Haryana over the past four years. It smacks of corruption and is a poor reflection on the working of a network of agencies meant to procure, protect and distribute the golden yield for consumption by millions of hungry mouths in the country. The investigation by the Food and Civil Supplies Department of Haryana points to a system that has become rotten as greed eats into the conscience of the authorities concerned.

The inquiry into why thousands of sacks of wheat had been allowed to decay as they lay stored in the plinths, exposed to inclement weather (mainly rains), since 2018 has led to the segregation of the decomposed and edible grains. Around Rs 43-crore worth of wheat has been found to be worthy of sale through auction. The remaining produce has been rendered irretrievably damaged and five officials of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department have been held accountable for the lapse, with the loss of Rs 40 crore to be recovered from them.

The exposure has led to a blame game as certain sections put the onus of the decomposition of wheat on the Food Corporation of India’s failure to lift the stored stocks. Allegations of ‘ghost billing’ add to the stink of pilferage among the rotten goings-on as the probe into the registration numbers of vehicles used to transport huge quantities of wheat have been found to be those of two-wheelers, not trucks. The state of affairs reeks of a bigger racket and the involvement of more officials and patronage in the highest echelons of the system cannot be ruled out. While weeding out the corrupt officials is commendable, a total cleansing of the fishy deals necessitates further inquiries and netting of the big fish. For, despite producing bumper crops, India, shamefully, is home to the largest number of food-insecure people in the world.