Thomas to discuss ways to perk up distribution

KOCHI: Union Minister of State for Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution K V Thomas has said that a meeting of the state food ministers would be held in New Delhi on July 26 to discuss ways to improve the food distribution system.A meeting of various state officials was held recently in this connection. The Minister said the state governments should act effectively in collecting and distributing food grains. A meeting was recently organised to ensure better and transparent functioning of the Food Corporation of India. The Minister was speaking at the meeting of the consultative committee, which has not met for the past 10 years.At present, a total of 654.73 lakh tonnes of rice and wheat is available in the Central pool. The Minister said a decision was taken to set up storage tanks in 19 states to store 152 lakh tonnes of food grains.