Parley in Parliament
It is sad that the quality of parliamentary events is deteriorating with each session. It is true that the present BJP government enjoys a majority that bestows on it the right to decide on the course of governance and also bring in policy changes in the interest of the nation. However, the entire fulcrum of parliamentary democracy rests on the majesty of according a proportional share of opinion to the other political parties.
The party in power has a larger responsibility vested in it to ensure that it makes sincere efforts to strive for political consensus and accommodation on major policies. Political and strategic differences may not pave the way for a smooth course, but that should not come in the way of attempting to transact governance, and by muting the Opposition. People expect a government with a majority and confident of its governance to display better valour in upholding parliamentary traditions.
N. Sekar,
Salem, Tamil Nadu
The Opposition has all the rights to oppose and defend Bills, but not in a violent manner. There are ways and means to register its protest in a dignified manner. Given the short monsoon session, the Opposition should have debated the issues in an established way.
Vaishnavi R. Patil,
Kalaburgi, Karnataka
FCI’s grain preservation
The cartoon (OpEd page, September 22) conveys a very misleading picture about the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The FCI, as the central nodal agency responsible for the procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrains across India, does so maintaining the highest level of standards in maintenance and preservation. The cartoon gives the impression that the FCI’s preservation and maintenance of food grain stocks are of very low standards, leaving valuable foodgrains at the mercy of rodents. Damage of foodgrains in the FCI’s storage during 2020-21 (as on August 2020) was hardly 0.004% against the total quantity of 338 lakh metric tonnes foodgrains distributed by the FCI. Even this meagre quantity happened because of natural calamities such as floods, and not rodents.
Despite the FCI’s voluminous operations and multi-level handling, the losses in storage are currently zero; the losses in transit, while transporting foodgrains across thousands of kilometres, from procuring centres to consuming centres, have also been very low during the past few years as a result of focused operations and scientific preservation techniques.
In the pandemic period, the FCI has made foodgrains available to fair price shops not only under the Public Distribution System but also under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
The FCI has moved 9,637 rakes (train loads), transporting almost 270 LMT foodgrains (since March 2020), which is way higher than its operations in normal times.
R.D. Nazeem,
Executive Director (South),
Food Corporation of India,
Chennai
