Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has informed the Lok Sabha that 119 cooperative godowns have been completed under the World’s Largest Decentralized Grain Storage Plan, with Andhra Pradesh accounting for 117 projects and Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh one each.
In a written reply on Tuesday, Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said 168 projects have been approved across Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. While Andhra Pradesh has completed all its approved projects, five projects are currently under construction in Bihar.
The Minister said Madhya Pradesh has surplus storage capacity and is therefore not participating in the decentralized grain storage plan, except for one godown built in Balaghat district.
The government also highlighted the expanding role of PACS in rural infrastructure. Bihar has 5,828 PACS, including 2,659 godowns and 3,752 fair price shops, while Andhra Pradesh has 685 PACS, 6 custom hiring centres and 71 fair price shops.
The Centre has released Rs 5.24 crore in subsidy under the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI) scheme to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It added that all godowns are being registered with the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) to enable access to the electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWR) system, and no structural safety issues have been reported.
