Additional foodgrain to NFSA beneficiaries: Sufficient stocks to deal with any situation, says Centre

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 23

The Centre on Saturday said sufficient foodgrain stocks are available in the country to deal with any situation. Speaking to the media about the additional free-of-cost foodgrains being provided to NFSA beneficiaries for the months of May and June, Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said: “There are sufficient stocks, much more than the buffer norm, available in the country to deal with any situation. Since Rabi procurement is also going on, more is being added.”

According to Food Corporation of India officials, the country has reserves of 77.23 MT of food grains, including 49.93 MT rice (31.06 MT in form of unmilled paddy) and 27.3 MT of wheat as of April 1 The current stocks are more than three times the buffer norm of 21.04 MT, they said.

Pandey said the Centre is closely monitoring the situation to ascertain whether the scheme needs to be extended beyond June. “The Prime Minister has time and again repeated that there is no question of a complete lockdown. It was after reviewing the situation the government yesterday made the announcement of providing additional foodgrains to NFSA beneficiaries in May and June. The government will further review to ascertain whether it needs to be extended,” he said.

Pandey also said that Chief Ministers of 13 states had requested the Centre to continue with the scheme launched during the corona crisis in 2020. The Centre “successfully distributed” for eight months between April and November around 30 MT food grains with a “high level of satisfaction”, he said.

According to officials, an independent survey conducted by Dalberg (Commissioned by Ministry of Finance) has shown “a very high level of satisfaction among the beneficiaries with regards to distribution of foodgrains under the PM-GKAY and NFSA during the crisis”.

Another study by Microsave Consulting (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded) in 88 districts across 18 States/UTs has also shown that an average of 94% households received the free ration on monthly basis during the crisis. Further, there was a high level of awareness of about 97% regarding PM-GKAY distribution and the entitlement thereof, they added.

However, this time the scheme will only include wheat and rice. “Pulses and chana provided last year were exceptional,” said officials. They also added that this time the country “is not facing the kind of migration issues it saw last year”, therefore “comparisons cannot be made”.

“NFSA is about cereals wheat rice and millets. Chana and pulses provided last year was exceptional,” they said.

The scheme includes 9.74 Crore AAY beneficiaries and 70.13 Crore PHH beneficiaries. 13 CMs, including Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttarakhand, “requested the extension of the scheme and appreciated the decision to provide free foodgrain under PM-GKAY,” they said.

Amid the fresh COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the Government yesterday decided to allocate free-of-cost foodgrains at the rate of 5 kg per person per month to nearly 80 crore beneficiaries covered under National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) over and above NFSA foodgrains for next two months (May and June) on the same pattern as the earlier “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY)”.

The Centre will bear full expenditure of over Rs 26,000 Crore on account of cost of food grains, intrastate transportation etc. as part of Central assistance to States/UTs, officials said, adding that this was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to the poor.