FCI restructuring: Panel to submit final report to PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: The high-level committee set up to study restructuring of state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) is likely to submit its final report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.

Restructuring of the FCI, a nodal agency for procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrains to the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes, is a campaign promise of the NDA government.

"The eight-member panel, headed by Member of Parliament from Himachal Pradesh Shanta Kumar, has finalised the report after discussing with various stakeholders and FCI officials. The report will be submitted to the Prime Minister tomorrow," an highly placed source said.

The committee has finalised the report in five months. Initially, it was asked to submit the recommendation in three months, but it sought two months extension.

Sources said that the panel has touched the FCI related issues beyond the terms of reference and given recommendations for major overhaul of the FCI.

The terms of reference of the panel was to study various models of restructuring or unbundling of FCI and to suggest the best-suited model to improve its operational efficiency and financial management.

The panel was asked to give suggestions to reorient the role and functions of FCI in the minimum support price (MSP) operations, storage and distribution of foodgrains and food security systems of the country.

The panel was also asked to recommend cost effective scientific models of storage, rationalised mode of foodgrains movement and technology upgradation in foodgrains management.

Members of the committee include FCI Chairman-cum- Managing Director C Viswanath, former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) Ashok Gulati and electronic and IT secretary Ram Sewak Sharma.

The chief secretaries of Punjab and Chhattisgarh, besides academicians G Raghuram and Gunmadi Nancharaiah from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad University, respectively, are also part of the committee.