New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 1 lakh crore programme to increase foodgrain storage capacity by 700 lakh tonne in the cooperative sector. Giving details, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said presently, the grain storage capacity in the country is about 1,450 lakh tonne.
In the next five years, the storage will expand to 2,150 lakh tonne. The storage capacity will be increased in the cooperative sector. Terming the proposed scheme as the "world's largest foodgrain storage programme" in the cooperative sector, Thakur said a 2,000-tonne capacity godown will be set up in each block.
He said the move is aimed to reduce the damage of food grains due to a lack of storage facilities, help in checking distress sales by farmers, reduce import dependence and create employment opportunities in rural India. The minister said more storage capacity will reduce transportation costs for farmers and strengthen food security. India annually produces about 3,100 lakh tonne of foodgrains, but the existing godowns can store only up to 47 per cent of the produce.
Besides this, the government approved the City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) 2.0 that seeks to support projects promoting a circular economy with focus on integrated urban management, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said.
The CITIIS 2.0, approved by the Union Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will run for four years beginning this fiscal in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), Kreditanstalt fr Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union (EU), and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
The programme envisages to support competitively selected projects promoting a circular economy with focus on integrated waste management at the city level, climate-oriented reform actions at the state level, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the national level, Thakur told reporters here.
The funding for CITIIS 2.0 would include a loan of Rs 1,760 crore or 200 million Euros with AFD and KfW contributing 100 million Euros each and a technical assistance grant of Rs 106 crore (EUR 12 million) from the EU, Thakur said. The CITIIS 2.0 aims to leverage and scale up the learnings and successes of CITIIS 1.0 which was launched jointly in 2018 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, AFD, EU, and NIUA, with a total outlay of Rs 933 crore.
