The stock of foodgrains offered with the Food Corporation of India is “comfy” to manage the scenario till March next year, but it would be an exaggeration to hold that the stock is “far in excess” of the buffer stock requirement, which must consist of extra allowance, according to D.V. Prasad, Chairman and Managing Director of the FCI.
Responding to the demand being made by food security activists that the Central federal government, with “enormous excess stock”, release more foodgrains to States free of expense or at a nominal cost over and above the existing allowances, Mr. Prasad told The Hindu on Thursday that the buffer stock norms were fixed based upon the requirement of wheat or rice at 5 kg an individual for 80 crore beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which was in line with the requirements of the law.
Extra allotment
” The norms have been determined, thinking about normal circumstances and they basically provide for any production shortages. A pandemic, as we are seeing today, is a different circumstance and it m