Title - Wheat damage: Gujarat HC notices to agencies

A bench of Gujarat high court, on Thursday, issued notices to the Western Railway, Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Union government with regard to the 3,000 metric tonne wheat damage at the Vadodara railway station. The court, conducting a primary hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Ritesh Koshti, through his lawyers Ashish Desai and Yatin Oza, has demanded a CBI inquiry against errant officers involved.The PIL stated that the CWC, on behalf of FCI, loaded 56 bogies of a goods train with 24,000 bags containing 3,000 metric tonne wheat at a railway yard in Madhya Pradesh on August 10 and unloaded at the Vadodara railway yard under an open sky on August 12.There was heavy rain at Vadodara on August 12, because of which most of the unloaded wheat got wet. In the submission, it has been stated that over 3,000 quintals of wheat worthRs3.5 crore was damaged because officials concerned failed to make necessary arrangement to store the wheat in time.The quantity of wheat wasted, the PIL claims, is enough to feed more than 5,000 people for over a year. It also says that food grain has been allowed to go waste at a time when more than half of Gujarat has been declared scarcity-hit.The FCI should have taken the wheat to a CWC godown in Vadodara within 36 hours as it was meant to reach the poor through public distribution system (PDS) as well as for sale in the open market, the PIL adds. Such a waste cannot be allowed in our country just because there is lack of co-ordination between various agencies such as the Railways, Central Warehousing Corporation and the Food Corporation of India, it claims.

The PIL further said that usually stock is not offloaded when it is raining. When the stock was offloaded three days ago, it was not raining, but since the officials failed in their duty to take necessary steps, tonnes of wheat had been wasted in this scarcity situation.

The food grain meant for poor people has been rendered useless due to negligence of authorities, causing great loss to the exchequer and exposed the systemic failure of the (PDS).