VOA标准英语2012--Indian Government Takes Heat for Rotting Wheat（在线收听）

Indian Government Takes Heat for Rotting Wheat 

In Bhopal, India anger and frustration boil over - protesters clashing with police, blaming government officials for letting their harvests go to waste.

On Thursday, Punjab state's deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal placed the blame at the top. "The grain is not with us, it is in the custody of the FCI [Food Corporation of India]. So it is FCI's property, if they have let it rot its FCI's problem," he said.

In New Delhi, Food Minister K.V. Thomas was quick to dismiss any concerns. "I had a discussion with the minister of agriculture of Punjab a few days back. My report is that they are managing all these things," he said.

But pictures from around India tell a different story - piles of wheat at this grain market in Rajasthan exposed to the elements, rotting away following a heavy rainfall.

Another pile makes a comfortable bed for a dog. Farmers are outraged.

A laborer pulls at a sack of rotting wheat grain to try to salvage any that was still edible, at an open storage area in Khamanon village, some 215 kilometers (133 miles) from Amritsar, India. 

"Even looking at all this, there is no mercy for farmers," said farmer Raghu. "There is no administration or collector to look into the matter. Anybody who comes here just gives assurance that our work will be done soon. But no one comes after that."

The vast shortage of storage facilities has sparked bitter debate in New Delhi, where officials have said there is simply no where to put an estimated 12 million tons of surplus grain this year.

So for now there is little hope for farmers, forced to watch as their good grain goes bad.