Save Grain campaign
(http://www.deccanherald.com/content/88946/fixing-responsibility-foodgrain-wastage.html) (07.10.2013)
In 1979, the Save Grain
campaign was proposed in an attempt to prevent damage after the successful
Green Revolution. It envisaged 50 grain storage structures across the country,
each with a capacity of 10 lakh tones.
The plan was to decentralise
storage eventually creating storage units at the block level and remove the
problem of long-distance transport. The proposal was not properly implemented.
Had the plan been in place, this years wastage could have been prevented.
However, in 2008, in pursuance with the Expenditure Reforms
Commission (ERC) recommendations Government closed down 12 ‘Save Grain
Campaign’ (SCG) offices located at Chandigarh, Ghaziabad, Guwahati, Bangalore,
Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow and Pune and convert them into Quality Control
Cells (QCCs) from the next month.
So, 13 functional units are being closed down in 2008 and
out of them 5 QCCs will become operational from 1 March 2008 in addition to the
3 existing QCCs functioning at Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
The Save Grain Campaign provided metal bins for which
government gave subsidies to farmers who purchased such bins. Now, with the closure of SGC offices farmers
will not get a subsidy, which means they will have to put more money to procure
the same bins.