Soon, 31 silos to be built in Punjab, says Union Minister

Tribune News Service

Sangrur/ mOGA, February 18

Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Raosaheb Patil Danve today said the Centre had planned 31 silos in Punjab to shift from the traditional storage system to a scientific one and, thus, prevent wastage of foodgrain.

He made the announcement here while on a visit to godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Accompanied by local BJP leaders, he inspected the godowns and reviewed the Public Distribution System (PDS).

“The process of identifying suitable sites for the silos has started. Soon, the construction will begin. The structure of a silo ensures scientific method of storing grains. The stored grains are kept dry and aired for longer duration as compared with traditional methods to prevent pest attacks,” the minister said.

Local BJP leaders, meanwhile, submitted a memorandum to the minister requesting him to award Class VII student Amandeep Kaur, who saved seven of her schoolmates from a burning bus in Longowal on Saturday.

“Since Amandeep showed courage in testing times, the Centre must award her,” said Randeep Deol, district BJP president.

The minister said that soon, the “one nation, one ration card” policy would be implemented across the country and 12 states had already been divided into clusters for the purpose.

Before the inspection, the minister met FCI General Manager Arshdeep Singh Thind, DC Ghanshyam Thori, Senior Superintendent of Police Sandeep Garg, Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Tripathi and District Food and Suppliers Controller (DFSC) Sweety Dewgan.

Meanwhile, Danve also visited the country’s biggest silo having a capacity of 2-lakh metric tonnes (MT) situated in the district’s Dagru village.

The silo owned by Adani Agri Logistics Limited was set up in agreement with the FCI to store wheat stock bought by government agencies.

Danve, accompanied by FCI General Manager (Regional) Arshdeep Singh Thind, hailed the advanced technology in the silo, which needs less labour while procuring and storing foodgrains.

Briefing about the project to the minister, Mehndiratta said the process of selling foodgrain to the FCI was easy. The foodgrains are picked from a trolley, sampled and checked in just two to three hours.