Flour mill, industrial estate near godown could be behind insect menace: FCI
GUWAHATI, Sept 12 - Technical officials of the Food Corporation India (FCI), during a recent investigation found that existence of a flour mill and the industrial estate in the vicinity of the FCI�s Food Storage Depot (FSD) at New Guwahati might be the probable reason for the prevalence of the pest which had caused a headache among residents of Bamunimaidam and New Guwahati areas.
The FCI carried out the investigation based on a complaint filed by the Gunjan Tower Housing Society. The society in the complaint had alleged that the pest was originating from the FCI godown located at Bamunimaidam. After receiving the complaint, the FCI formed an inquiry committee with senior officials.
According to the report, the committee members first inspected the campus of the godown but did not notice any insect as alleged in the complaint. The committee members also did not notice any menace of pests or insects in the office canteen of the godown, the report said.
In the second step of investigation, the inquiry committee enquired of the officials of the FSD about any menace of pests or insects in the godown, upon which the officials reported that there was no existence of such problem in the godown.
In the third step, the committee members inspected the stocks in all the six sheds of the FSD and found some insects crawling in three of them. Then the committee members immediately directed the officials concerned to undertake prophylactic treatment to arrest the insects.
Meanwhile, in course of the investigation, the committee found some insects in a flour mill located in front of the FSD New Guwahati and near the Vishal Mega Mart.
�In order to restrict cross infestation from the flour mill, the committee members directed the technical person of the FSD to undertake prophylactic treatment of the entire stocks as per norms to restrict infestation of the stocks from pests originating from outside and same was done in presence of the committee members,� the report said.
The report further stated that the inquiry team found insects in some storage located inside the Industrial Estate, Bamunimaidam too.
As reported earlier, the insect was identified as �flour beetle� by an entomologist of the College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara.
