Food Corporation of India (FCI), the government's nodal agency for procurement and distribution of foodgrains, on Friday said it will hire 9,000 professionals in the next three years.
"We will fill-up approximately 9,000 posts in various categories in next three years," FCI Chairman and Managing Director Siraj Hussain said during the launch of the revamped website of the organisation.
While the scale of foodgrains dealt by FCI has increased substantially over last three decades, its manpower has been drastically reduced in the wake of staff retirement to almost half, he said.
Currently, over 33,000 staff is employed with FCI across the country. About 20,000 employees will be retired in next two years, he added.
The official said that the vacant posts in various categories would be filled up in a phased manner.
After inaugurating the revamped FCI website, Food and Agriculture Minister for State K V Thomas said, "I hope that constant efforts will be made by FCI to keep the website updated and information will also be disseminated to public through this website."
At present, many of the government websites including the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Affairs do not have updated information.
The re-designed FCI website provides up-to-date information about quantity of foodgrains procured, stored and moved to states for distribution through ration shops.
One can access through a common link all tenders floated in different FCI offices and also details of regional and zonal offices.
The minister further said that through the new website, FCI would be able to create more awareness about its role in ensuring food security of the nation by maintaining sufficient food stocks and safeguarding farmers' interest by ensuring MSP operations.
As on January 1, 2011, the Central pool has rice and wheat stock of 47.12 million tonnes, which is higher than the buffer norm of 20 million tonnes.
