Reacting to the recent move by the government in the direction of speeding up the manufacturing of sanitizers, the former President of the Indian National Congress criticized the government for using rice to prepare sanitizers.
On Monday, the government of India approved to use the surplus rice available with the Food Corporation of India to convert into ethanol that can be used to manufacture alcohol-based sanitizers and also for blending with petrol. The decision was taken at the National Biofuel Coordination Committee meeting.
When will India’s poor wake up, asks Gandhi
Responding to this, Rahul Gandhi attacked the government for the decision that could take away the food from the poor who is already suffering. He put out a tweet in Hindi where he says,
“After all, when will India’s poor wake up? You are dying of hunger and they are busy cleaning the hands of the rich by making sanitizers from your portion of rice.”
आख़िर हिंदुस्तान का ग़रीब कब जागेगा? आप भूखे मर रहे हैं और वो आपके हिस्से के चावल से सैनीटाईज़र बनाकर अमीरों के हाथ की सफ़ाई में लगे हैं।https://t.co/5NjoMmsJnK
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 21, 2020
The move comes after the government gave a go-ahead to the sugar companies and distilleries to manufacture hand sanitizers using ethanol. The Sugar companies in turn supply ethanol to oil marketing companies to blend it with petrol. While some of them are pricing it at the cost price, a few of them are selling it for free.
According to the official data from the government, there are a total of 58.49 million tonnes of foodgrains in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India. Out of this, rice comprises 30.97 million tonnes and wheat is about 27.52 million tonnes. Every year the average reserve food grain stock with the Food Corporation of India is 21 million tonnes. The current stock is much more than the average.
Under the National Food Security Act (NFA), the government is supplying 5 Kg of foodgrains per month to over 80 crore people at a highly subsidized price of 2-3 rupees per kilogram. Apart from that, the central government has also decided to distribute foodgrains of 5 kilograms each to every person for the next three months. This move is looked as a relief measure to the poor who is suffering the most during the nationwide lockdown amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Source: The Times of India
