The food ministry on Wednesday found that more than 340 tonne of foodgrain mostly wheat stocks have been damaged at the Food Corporation of India (FCI) depots in Uttar Pradesh because of improper storage and handling.

After inspecting the godowns in Uttar Pradesh, food ministry officials have found that around 30 tonne at Hapur, 15 tonne at Orai and over 300 tonne at Harduaganj estimated to be close to Rs 50 lakh have been damaged.

The food ministry officials have instructed top FCI officials to take immediate penal action against the concerned officers as well as take corrective measures for improving storage conditions at these three depots and also at other FCI depots throughout the country.

Food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had stated that last week that the government is looking into reports of grain damaged in various FCI and state government owned godowns. The ministry has also directed that action be taken against those FCI Officers who had ‘willfully’ submitted a wrong report regarding damage to the wheat stocks at Orai and Harduaganj depots.

The FCI has been facing acute storage problems because of record procurement of wheat and rice during last three years. As on June 1, country’s foodgrain stocks in the central pool was to the tune of 57.8 million tonne.