Srinagar, July 10: The Kashmir Economic Alliance today came down heavily on Food Corporation of India for “botching up” the Public Distribution System and Open Market Sale Scheme in the “foodgrain deficit” Kashmir.
 Chairman KEA, Muhammad Yaseen Khan in a statement said that even as the government of India has launched these schemes for the benefit of common people, in Kashmir they are being “misused” by the FCI.
 “It is an irony that people in Kashmir are being deprived of the benefits of such schemes due to callous attitude of FCI,” he added.
 He said the KEA “has been frequently receiving complaints of misappropriation of foodgrains allocated for the Valley so much so that a considerable percentage of the foodgrains don’t even enter the Valley but are believed to be sold in the open market outside the state.”
 “The foodgrains reaching the Valley particularly those meant for far-flung areas most of the times are of substandard quality and not fit for human consumption.”
 “The allocation of foodgrains to the Valley is made on the basis of census 2000 whereas the census 2011 reveals that the population of the valley have increased considerably,” he said.
 Khan alleged that the Valley is being discriminated against Jammu in the allocation of what.
 “The FCI has recently floated tenders for sale of wheat under OMSS in J&K. 15000 MT wheat has been allotted to Jammu region which has a population of approximately 4.5 million, whereas only 3000 MT has been allotted to Valley which has 7 million population.” “The KEA seeks intervention of the Union Ministry of CAPD in this behalf,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST