Govt lens on FCI pilferage; AI to track grains management

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, March 16: After slicing the food subsidy bill from Rs 2.87 lakh crore to Rs 1.97 lakh crore, the Centre is gearing up to crack down against pilferages of grains from the godowns of the Food Corporation of India with the help of artificial intelligence. The centre is bracing up to tighten the screws of the leaky FCI grains management done in cahoots with millers to shortchange the government and profiteer from the government’s subsidy bill.

The Ministry of Food has undertaken a massive survey of godowns of Food Corporation of India (FCI) in the recent months as part of the exercise to streamline the management of the food stocks at the godown and also their upkeep. This is precursor to the move of the Ministry to employ AI for tracking movement of the stocks of the foodgrains.

The Ministry is gearing up to spend Rs 300 crores for deploying AI-based grains management systems at FCI godowns to ensure zero pilferage and also track down stealing of the high quality grains which are allegedly replaced by low quality sourced from the millers and traders.

“Geo-fencing technology is being employed to ensure there is no scope of pilferage from godowns. Any shipments such as trucks carrying grains cannot stop for more than five minutes between end-to-end destinations,” said a senior official.

The survey has been conducted by the top officials of the Central government to study the changes needed for better management of the food stocks with FCI, which incidentally is the principal medium in the procurement and distribution of the foodgrains. Incidentally, the officials came across even incidents of fire incidents, which raised their eyebrows.

The Centre is also looking at the practice of the foodgrains stocks kept in private premises despite FCI godowns having underutilized capacities. The move to maintain a sharp eye on the food stock management is part of the exercise to weed out several vested interests in the FCI, who allegedly profiteer from the leaky management of procurement to distribution.

The major focus of FCI is Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh from where the agency procures most of the wheat stocks. The FCI godowns are, however, spread across the country to facilitate the distribution to the fair price shops under the National Food Security Act.