Drastic squeezing of public food distribution system (PFDS) from July 1 has left at least 2,000 jobs under the food ministry on the line.

The ministry's food directorate will be running on 6,500 staffers, down from 8,500, after full replacement of food with cash in food for work (FFW) and food for education (FFE) programmes, two components of PFDS, according to a preliminarily estimate.

The two programmes had drawn the biggest amount of grains. But the government replaced the total amount of grains under the FFE and the FFW's half the amount with cash.

The run of the programmes in the 2003-04 fiscal by cash instead of food makes jobs of many food officials, involved in food storage, supply and distribution, redun-

dant, say officials.

The issue was discussed at a pre-budget meeting between the finance ministry and the food ministry late last month. However, the food ministry has not yet formed any committee on workforce rationalisation.

The food ministry has 8,500 officials and employees on its payroll against sanctioned posts of 13,000. A further cut in jobs will lead to closure of some food warehouses and thana-level food offices, says an official.

Official statistics show the food ministry has 621 local storage depots, 13 central storage depots and five silos -- constructed between the 1940s and the 1980s -with a storage capacity of 18 lakh metric tons (MT).

Officials at the warehouse-level apart, hundreds of food officials and employees are posted to the six

divisions, 64 districts and 640 upazilas.

Against the 18 lakh MT storage capacity, the government kept a minimum of 10 lakh MT as food reserve security. With the FFE turning into a cash-based programme last year, the government trimmed the minimum food reserve to 8.5 lakh MT.

The new move for the 2003-04 fiscal will threaten a new low in food security, says the official. In the 2001-02 fiscal, the government released 5.15 lakh MT of rice and wheat for the FFW, but the amount was slashed to 1.63 lakh MT in the first 10 months of the 2002-03 fiscal, as much of the work has been carried out on cash.

The government allocated 2.1 lakh MT of rice and wheat for the FFE in 2001-02, but the programme did not get any grains in 2002-03.