Millions of tonnes of wheat are going to waste in India because there’s nowhere to keep the grain dry.
After a bumper harvest, sacks full of the foodstuff are being left to rot – despite millions of the country’s children starving.
Sharad Yadav, a key opposition leader, said it was ‘a colossal waste of food’.
He added: ‘It is unfortunate that while people are dying of hunger, food grain is rotting in the open.’
It has been a particularly good year for wheat crops in India but as a result, the country’s storage space has run out.
Food minister KV Thomas said the government was taking ‘all necessary steps’ to increase storage and working with the private sector to buy new warehouses.
About 42 per cent of Indians under the age of five are malnourished.
Selling the grain at a subsidised price is not possible because it will expand the fiscal deficit, economists say.
Source: Metro (London)
