News paper- The Pioneer                                         10 December 2005

Interaction with CMD FCI

 ISO 9001:2000 for FCI units our goal

What are the challenges before the FCI ?
* Procuring 400 lakh tonne of foodgrains for PDS and ensuring the supply reaches on time and in the most efficient manner. Seven states supply the grains which have to be delivered to 23 states, thus requiring the movement of 250 lakh tonne every year and services of 5,000 godowns. We are considering mobilising Rs 5,000 crore through bond issue as it will save us Rs 400 crore per annum.
What new initiatives are you taking ?
* Computerization scheme for depot to headquarter feeding and gearing towards achieving ISO:9001:2000 standards in Zonal, regional and field offices of FCI are some of the initiatives we 've already taken. We also look forward to decentralised procurement so as to raise the number of states from where foodgrains are procured.
Do you face storage problems ? What is being done to improve the quality of procured foodgrains ?
* Our storage capacity (24 million tonne) exceeds the required (400 lakh tonne). We only had storage problems in 2000-2001. For asessment of quality of foodgrains at pre-harvest stages, we've signed moUs with Central Food Technology Research institute (Mysore), Central Institute of post-harvest Engineering and Technology (Ludhiana) and Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (Hissar).

Malhotra is CMD, Food Corporation of India

_Syed Amir Ali Hashmi