Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 10 (IANS) The central government is trying to arrange gunny bags for Madhya Pradesh, Food Minister K.V. Thomas said Thursday, reacting to reports from the state of shortage of bags used for storing food grain.

“An assessment was done for Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Assam for grain storage and requirement of gunny bags. The MP (Madhya Pradesh) government had said they would purchase 50 percent of the bags from outside,” Thomas said at a workshop on strengthening public distribution system and food fortification here.

“Later, they (the government) said this purchase is not possible so the state fell short of the bags. Now we are making proper arrangement of gunny bags for MP, and planning is going on,” Thomas said.

The two-day national workshop is being organised by the ministry of consumer affairs and the United Nations World Food Programme.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had blamed the central government for the shortage of bags. He said that the lack of gunny bags had caused huge losses since the state could not procure a large amount of food grain due to the shortage of bags.

“We have planned it with the chief ministers of the states. This issue has been discussed in parliament also and there is no politics in it,” Thomas added.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in the Lok Sabha that the government was supporting creation of storage facilities through its viability fund and by providing concessions in interests as long-term storage methods.

He said Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had procured more grain than estimated, which caused the shortage of bags.

Jute bag producing units in West Bengal have also been told to increase production by 25,000 sacks from the present monthly output of 2.5 lakh.