India in crisis over food warehouses

Millions of tons of wheat are rotting in the open after India ran out of warehouse space to store another bumper crop.

Huge quantities of wheat and rice are stored in fields under tarpaulins and thin plastic sheets, risking decay.

Food minister K V Thomas said yesterday that the government was taking “all necessary steps” to increase storage capacities. Opposition parties, and even some of the ruling Congress Party’s coalition partners, have called the rotting grain a scandal.

“While people are dying of hunger, food grain is rotting in the open,” said Sharad Yadav, a key opposition leader.

“We are confronting a serious food crisis, and the government is indifferent to this colossal waste.”

India’s grain production is expected to touch around 253 million tons this year, nearly 10 million tons more than the previous year.