NEW DELHI, OCT 28: Barely a fortnight after the government first gave in to the Punjab farmers lobby and asked the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to buy their damaged wheat, similar demands have begun to trickle in from four other states - Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.Like Punjab (and Haryana which got this sop within a few days), these states are also looking for assurances from the central government that the FCI will pick up even the damaged stock of paddy at the government-declared procurement price.The bill for sops to all these states will be a whopping Rs 1,000 crore. Of this, Rs 450 crore have already been given to Punjab and Haryana, UP is likely to cost the central exchequer Rs 100 crore and Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal another Rs 400 to Rs 450 crore.The blackmailing from various states could not have come at a worse time for the centre with the FCI godowns already overflowing with wheat stock and almost 100 lakh tonnes of grains lying in the open. According to the Food Minister Shanta Kumar, ``unless we take quick steps to dispose off grains, a worse nightmare will face us by next April when the procurement season for wheat will begin.''According to reliable sources in the Food Ministry, a delegation from UP has already met the Food Minister Shanta Kumar with their demands for lifting of 60,000 tonnes of paddy. ``Even UP wants the Punjab pattern of sops - relaxation in the percentage of broken grains from 5 per cent to 8 per cent of milled paddy and turn out specifications relaxed from 64 to 67 per cent,'' says a senior official in the ministry.In fact, a central team has been deputed under the joint secretary of the Food Ministry to survey the situation in UP before finalising a package for them.``With Punjab and Haryana walking away with these packages, it may be very difficult for the centre to deny the same to other states especially as UP has a BJP government. In the case of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu always manages to get whatever he wants in return for his party's support to the government at the centre. West Bengal of course will soon have Mamata Banerjee taking up their cause,'' says a Food Ministry official.The centre is currently stocked with foodgrains to the tune of 42 million tonnes which is nearly 80 per cent more than the buffer stock norm requirement of 24 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice together to meet the requirements of the Public Distribution System. This would cost the central government Rs 4,000 crore per year just for stocking these food grains leave alone the cost of these grains which have been procured at a total cost of Rs 18,000 crore.
