MP Manish Tewari chairs the meeting of FCI Advisory Committee

Chandigarh, September 22, 2025: Manish Tewari, Member of Parliament and former Union Minister, Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, Senior National Spokesperson of the Indian National Congress, chaired a meeting of the FCI Advisory Committee in Chandigarh.

The meeting was attended by all the officers of the Food Corporation of India.
The General Manager of the Punjab region, B. Srinivasan, gave an in-depth presentation about the procurement operations being carried out in the state of Punjab and the Union Territory of Chandigarh with regard to both paddy and wheat.

Tewari impressed upon the assembled officers that the procurement of paddy in Punjab and Chandigarh should be absolutely hassle-free and seamless.

Payments to the farmers must be made in time, as well as adequate steps must be taken to ensure that the paddy which has been procured and milled is moved as expeditiously as possible out of the state, in order to create adequate capacity for the incoming crop, and that the godowns and the sheds of the rice millers are not congested and are not over used as surplus storage capacity by the procurement agencies and their instrumentalities.

Tewari further emphasised that the food grains which are provided to the people under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana, the National Food Security Act and the Public Procurement Program are of a quality which is appropriate and fit for human consumption.

He pointed out that in his erstwhile parliamentary constituency of Sri Anandpur Sahib, which he represented from 2019 to 2024, there were regular complaints about the quality of food grains which are supplied to people under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana/National Food Security Act and the Public Distribution Program.

Tewari also expressed concern that the hinterland where the supplies of the paddy/rice procured from Punjab goes is steadily shrinking as more and more southern states are growing paddy in ever greater quantities. This could adversely impact procurement from Punjab in the years and decades ahead.

He however expressed satisfaction that most of the wheat which is procured from Punjab and Chandigarh is evacuated fairly rapidly by the Food Corporation of India.

He promised to take up with the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs as well the apex management of the Food Corporation of India that enough rakes must be provided at all railheads in Punjab and Chandigarh in order to ensure that there is speedy and expeditious movement, disposal and dissemination of the procured food grains.

Former Chairman of Punjab Large Industrial Development Board Pawan Dewan was also present in the meeting.