Food Corporation of India (FCI) is ensuring uninterrupted supply of wheat and rice throughout the country during the 21-day national lockdown period.
FCI is fully prepared to meet not only the food grain requirement under National Food Security Act (NFSA) @5 KG/Month/Beneficiary but also any additional demand including the supply of 5Kg/Person for the next 3 months to 81.35 Crore people under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana.
As on April 1, 2020, FCI has 56.4 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of Food Grains (30.54 MMT Rice and 25.86 MMT Wheat).
Even in this challenging operational environment, FCI is able to meet the increasing demand of food grains by gearing up the pace of supply of wheat and rice throughout the country mostly by Rail.
A total of 58 Rakes are being loaded on Thursday, carrying about 1.62 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) food grain stock.
Since the day of lockdown, which began on March 24, FCI has moved 410 rakes carrying an approximate quantity of 11.48 LMT.
FCI is conducting e-auctions under Open Market Sales Scheme (OMSS) for providing Wheat to the empanelled Roller Flour Mills/State Government to ease the supply constraint in the market.
In the last e-auction held on March 31, bids for 1.44 LMT wheat have been received.
In the view of the outbreak of COVID-19, apart from regular e-auction, District Magistrates/Collectors have been authorized to lift directly from FCI depots at OMSS reserve price to cater to the needs of Roller Flour Mills and other wheat product manufactures.