With foodgrain stocks estimated to swell up to 75 million tonnes at the beginning of the monsoon (June 1) this year as against the buffer norm of 32 million tonnes, Food Minister K V Thomas and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, both of whom are at loggerheads over the issue of sugar exports, have closed ranks for liquidating the stocks to avoid damage. The ministers are learnt to have favoured offering foodgrain as wages under the rural job guarantee scheme NREGS.

Sources in Krishi Bhavan said while Pawar is learnt to have made this suggestion in a letter to the Prime Minister early this week, Thomas is learnt to have also written a letter to Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh for exploring such a possibility. “There might be some immediate solutions like increasing allocations under PDS, increasing storage capacity, possibility of providing foodgrain along with cash as wages under MNREGA,” Pawar is learnt to have suggested to the Prime Minister, voicing his apprehensions over the mounting stock of foodgrain. Thomas’s letter to Ramesh is also on the same lines.

The country’s foodgrain storage capacity (63 million tonnes), which includes about 25 million tonnes of CAP (covered and plinth) storage in open spaces, will fall short by about 12 million tonnes, according to the estimates, at the beginning of monsoon.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has raised alarm, writing a letter to the Central government underlining that the lack of adequate storage space will become a “major bottleneck” for procurement operation in Haryana, which is one of the largest procuring states for the Centre.

Though Pawar has also suggested that the government may consider offloading higher quantities of foodgrain to states at highly subsidised rates (BPL rates), the proposal is unlikely to find favour with the Finance Ministry. In fact, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had earlier shot down a similar proposal in the EGoM late last month citing the increasing subsidy burden that could have cost the government an additional Rs 33,000 crore.

However, foodgrain as wages under NREGS may find favour with financial madarins as it will not only liquidate the food stocks without additional food subsidy burden but can also take care of part of expenditure on NREGS, which is to the tune of over Rs 30,000 crore annually.