FCI wheat worth Rs 700 cr got damaged till Mar 2016 in Punjab: CAG

New Delhi, August 4 : Apex auditor CAG has found that over Rs 700 crore worth of FCI wheat stock got “deteriorated” in Punjab till March 2016 as the grain was stored in open areas due to lack of storage facility. The damaged wheat stock could not be supplied through the ration shops, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in its latest report tabled in Parliament on Friday.
The CAG has audited implementation of the scheme PEG (Private Entrepreneur Guarantee) in Punjab to create storage capacity and the way the FCI managed its debt, labour and incentive payments during 2011-16. The CAG also found state-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) selling wheat to bulk consumers at a rate below the cost in 2013-14 leading to non-recovery of Rs 38.99 crore. That apart, the FCI incurred excess expenditure of Rs 237.65 crore due to non-rationalisation of surplus labour and deployment of costlier labour at depots.
The FCI had made fraudulent excess payment of Rs 14.73 lakh and Rs 37.89 lakh to transport contractors on account of payment of higher rates and for bills for longer distance than actual for transportation of foodgrains, the CAG said.
On the PEG scheme, the auditor said the implementation was “negligible in the initial years and even after seven years, full capacity had not been taken over. The operation of the scheme also suffered from various lacunae”. In Punjab, 53.56 lakh tonnes of wheat stock was lying covered and plinth (CAP), kacha plinth and mandi with state government agencies and the FCI. “Around 4.72 lakh tonnes of wheat valuing Rs 700.3 crore got deteriorated, which was declared non-issuable to the public distribution system (March 2016) as it was stored in open areas,” it added.