State has no space for rice

The civil supplies minister, Mr J. Krishna Rao, said on Monday that there was shortage of space in godowns to store rice.

“At present there is facility only to store 35 lakh metric tones,” he told mediapersons. “Earlier, we could store up to 90 lakh tonnes using the open space in the premises of Food Corporation of India godowns. This problem would last for another month.”

The minister said that every month three lakh tonnes of rice would be taken out from the godowns for the public distribution system and another two and half tonnes of boiled rice for export to other states. This would create space for fresh stocks, he added. Mr Krishna Rao added that the government would exempt the Nellore variety of rice from levy as the farmers were not getting support price. The Centre would issue directions in this regard in a few days and this would enable the millers to buy entire stocks without giving the mandatory quota of levy to the government, he disclosed. The minister said that no permission would be given for the export of rice abroad and added that the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, would soon take a decision on export of rice to other states by road.

With regard to ration cards, the minister said 19 lakh cards were identified as bogus in the preliminary survey but the number might come down after holding gram sabhas where the cancellation of cards of eligible people could be corrected.

Mr Rao said that though the iris system would be made effective because of statewide connectivity, use of biometric machines at fair price shops would take some more time.

The pilot study in 100 villages was already on, he said.