Palwal: Not just train mishaps but the last three years of UPA rule have also witnessed tonnes of foodgrain rotting away across the country while the poor starve. CNN-IBN has been running a sustained campaign to highlight the issue. Now, it reveals how 80,000 sacks of wheat rotting in the open in Haryana are being distributed to villages through the public distribution system.
The dry dust is all that remains of wheat stored at Ghugera, a Haryana granary, that is if you can call it one. So deep is the rot that wheat grain has coagulated into cakes, the decay is not restricted only to the wheat that is lying in the open. The polythenes can be lifted to see worms feasting, and multiplying. The strong wind in the open storage space threatens to blow away the blue polythene sheets that still cover some of the stacks of wheat. However, as the cover is rolled up, one can discover the damage underneath. Nearly 80,000 sacks of wheat procured by Haryana's agencies, some as early as 2010-11, lie abandoned. Of this 2015 metric tonne was procured in 2010-11 and, another 810 metric tonne was procured in 2009 by Haryana Food and Civil Supplies department. 80,000 sacks of wheat lie in the open right across a covered godown, which though dilapidated, is empty. The few wheat sacks here have also been damaged. The cobwebs all across tell you of months perhaps years of neglect.
The district food
09:30 PM, May 22, 2012
