Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday said her government would upgrade 12,500 acre of barren land into cultivable farm land with adequate water facilities while announcing several schemes for ushering in a second green revolution in the state. "With food production to be affected owing to the reducing cultivable land, my government this year will upgrade 12,500 acres of barren land and to set up proper water facilities a subsidy of Rs.4,000/acre will be given," she told the assembly.
According to her, the farm inputs will also be provided at subsidised rates and a sum of Rs 7.20 crore will be given for this purpose. In order to use the available water in an efficient manner, Jayalalithaa said the state would procure and rent out rain guns and mobile sprinklers to farmers. The project involves an outlay of Rs 57 crore, she said.
In order to make Tamil Nadu self-sufficient in food grain production, three kinds of fast track plans will be drawn and a plan allocation of Rs 114.20 crore has been allocated for this purpose, she added. According to her, a scheme worth Rs 275 crore will be implemented through sugar mills to boost sugarcane production in 50,000 acres while adding the setting up of special purpose vehicle to provide raw materials to the farmers.
In order to mechanise the farm operations as farm labourers are migrating, Jayalalithaa said the government would provide farm equipment at subsidised rates at an outlay of
04:46 AM, May 07, 2013
Punjab has yet again reaped a bumper crop, but the big question is where will it be stored? Starting April 1, 150 lakh tonnes of wheat are set to arrive in Punjab's procurement centres, but only 60 lakh tonnes can be stored safely. ...
06:22 AM, Mar 29, 2013
Despite government's promises to build more godowns for food grain storage, India has no space to store at least one-third of the 900 lakh metric tonnes of rice and wheat that is expected to be ready by June, 2013. Stark images from 2012 highlighted the acute lack of storage space for food grain procured for the central pool. ...
11:06 AM, Mar 05, 2013
The driver of a firm associated with liquor baron late Ponty Chadha on Monday escaped with an amount to the tune of Rs 10 lakh from Gurdaspur district, police said. On the complaint of Jaspreet Singh Seth, Vice President of 'AB food grains', associated with Chadha, a case was registered against Amritsar resident Rajesh Kumar for escaping with the amount, SHO Sri Hargobindpur Gurbhinder Singh said. ...
10:12 PM, Dec 31, 2012
Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the Congress-led government in Kerala tries hard to bring down skyrocketing prices of rice, Left parties have decided to take on the government over the issue. Rice is considered the staple food in the southern state but in the last four years, prices of the grain have more than doubled -- from Rs 19.70 to Rs 48 per kg. Prices of common rice varieties have gone up...
04:59 PM, Dec 18, 2012
Lucknow: Warning the Uttar Pradesh government of another food grains scam, the BSP on Thursday claimed massive irregularities have come to light in wheat purchases in five districts of the state. "There is every possibility of another food grains scam like the one in 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 worth Rs 50,000 crores which is being investigated by the CBI with reports of the wheat purchased till June 30, 2012 in Gorakhpur,...
04:58 PM, Aug 30, 2012
Kochi: Even as tonnes of foodgrain was found rotting in the open air owing to lack of storage space, a government agency formed exclusively for the storage of agricultural produce is now forced to rent out its godowns to store everything from medical supplies to liquor. The Food Corporation of India has never approached the State Warehousing Corporation to store grains! The Kerala State Warehousing Corporation, came into existence in...
11:03 AM, Jul 26, 2012
Chandigarh: Decrying the lack of proper sanitation facilities, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said toilets built over the last 10 years across the country are being used for storing food grain. "In last 10 years, toilets have been built (across the country)...But toilets are not being used for the purpose for which they had been built. They are being used for storing food grain...they have been turned into...
05:14 PM, Jul 06, 2012
Kota: There has been yet another shocking case of damage to food grains due to rains in Rajasthan's Kota district. Food grains to the tune of Rs 2 crore were neglected by Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials. Famers have now logded a case against Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials, alleging that they did not make adequate arrangement, despite assurances by food minister KV Thomas to CNN-IBN. This comes...
11:39 AM, Jun 09, 2012
New Delhi: On 6th June 2012 CNN-IBN had done a special story on damage to food grains due to rains in Rajasthan's Ganganagar district. The report says almost 40,000 metric tonnes of food grains lying in the open have been left neglected by Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials. You can read and watch the full report here. CNN-IBN received a letter from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food &...
02:21 PM, Jun 08, 2012
Mumbai: An RTI query has unearthed a major scam in the Public Distribution System, as many as 42 lakh bogus ration cards have been issued in Maharashtra leading to large scale theft of food grain. A PIL in the Bombay High Court has alleged grains meant for the state's poor are being offloaded on to the wrong hands. The petition filed by a member of Anna Hazare's anti corruption NGO...
06:27 AM, Dec 05, 2011
Chandigarh: Even as the country is grappling with the problem of big grain drain, another instance of gross wastage of the wheat in Punjab has come to light. Due to lack of storage facilities and lack of clearance of earlier stock, fresh wheat is being piled up by the roadside, getting drenched in pre-monsoon showers and rotting. In Muktsar and Ferozepur, the Punjab government was unable to provide for adequate...
09:24 AM, Jun 24, 2011
New Delhi/ Chandigarh: Biraj Patnaik, a special advisor to the Supreme Court, will bring the case of rice being burnt at a godown in Punjab to the court's attention. Patnaik will take up the cause just a day after CNN-IBN reported how thousands of tonnes of rice in Punjab was burnt to ashes after lying in the open for five years. "Hundred children die of malnutrition every hour. We have ...
11:44 AM, May 10, 2011
New Delhi/ Chandigarh: Biraj Patnaik, a special advisor to the Supreme Court, will bring the case of rice being burnt at a godown in Punjab to the court's attention. Patnaik will take up the cause just a day after CNN-IBN reported how thousands of tonnes of rice in Punjab was burnt to ashes after lying in the open for five years. "Hundred children die of malnutrition every hour. We have...
11:44 AM, May 10, 2011
India has been subsidizing its rice exports to Bangladesh. But still the deal doesn't seem to be materializing. ...
11:49 AM, Dec 19, 2010
New Delhi: A third of India's foodstocks left in the open to rot. Thousands of tonnes already spoilt. It might have forced the Government and particularly the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to aggressively look for more storage and take steps to save the stocks. But the FCI has other ideas up its sleeve- outsourcing India's food security. Well, almost! CNN-IBN's RTI query revealed the rather controversial proposal from the...
07:46 AM, Dec 02, 2010
Punjab: Fifty-five thousand metric tonnes of food grains rotted in Punjab alone and thousands of tonnes more across the nation. The pictures of rotting grains might have shocked us, but not Adesh Pratap Singh, the Food Minister of Punjab and certainly not Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The documents accessed by CNN-IBN through an RTI revealed that this rot was expected. A copy of a...
09:16 AM, Oct 25, 2010
New Delhi: India's attempt at food diplomacy has met with little success. An RTI query reveals that due to various problems even Bangladesh was not interested in Indian food grains. Bangladesh is eager to buy, India more than eager to sell the grains and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) wanting to hurry the process or so it seemed. Now, documents accessed by CNN -IBN through an RTI reveal the...
09:27 PM, Oct 21, 2010
Uttarakhand: Thousands of quintals of wheat meant for flood victims of Uttarakhand are rotting in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns in Haldwani - a shocking case of government apathy towards hundreds of people going hungry. The grain stocks were meant for consumption by the flood-ravaged victims of Haldwani district in Uttrakhand. Layers of fungi were seen upon many sacks of wheat stored at the dilapidated warehouse owned by FCI,...
11:04 AM, Sep 26, 2010
Jaipur: Over 1000 Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders in Rajasthan, got free cell phones, instead of the free food grains. It seemed the UPA Government would rather let the food grains rot in open than distribute them for free to the poor. The Government felt it more important to distribute cell phones to the poor in Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Sachin Pilot's constituency of Ajmer....
09:11 AM, Sep 10, 2010
