Wheat rots in U-K dist godowns

GOKARNA:Due to changed policies of the state government in distributing ration, huge quantity of wheat stock has been rotting in many godowns in Uttara  Kannada district for the last 10 months.
In February, the state government had decided to stop distribution of wheat to the APL and BPL card holders. In January, huge quantity of wheat was sent to various godowns of the district. The unused wheat is now damaged by insects.

According to sources in the district food and civil supplies department, there are 13 public distribution system (PDS)  godowns in the district and 1,976.53 quintal of wheat has been stored in these godowns for the last 10 months only to rot.

Recently, Yellapur tahsildar D G Hegde wrote to the deputy director of the district food and civil supplies stating they have 84 quintals of wheat at Yellapur taluk godown. The wheat is already damaged and now the insects are spreading to rice stock leaving the taluk administration staff a worried lot.

According to godown maintaining staff in Karwar, wheat at the godown can’t be consumed. It has become a big headache for them to maintain the wheat stock. When contacted, deputy director of Uttara Kannada district food and civil supply department Raghunath B said there is 1,976.53 quintal of wheat in various godowns. They have written a letter to district food safety officer to check the quality.