The Centre on Saturday announced that it will distribute free food grains and pulses to over 8 crore migrant labourers who are not covered under the National Food Security Act or State Scheme Public Distribution System (PDS) cards at 5 kg per month for two months.
Union Minister of Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan made the announcement during his interaction with the press through video conference in New Delhi.
Paswan said that to mitigate the plight of migrants during the COVID-19 situation and also ensure availability of food grains to them and their families, 8 LMT of food grains has been allocated to states/UTs and the Government of India will bear the entire cost on account of such distribution including transportation within the State, dealers’ margin etc.
He further said that the state/UT wise allocation orders have been issued. "Allocation has been made taking 10% of the total number of beneficiaries covered under NFSA in a particular state/UT. Identification of beneficiaries and distribution of food grains to such beneficiaries will be the responsibility of respective state/UT government," he said.
The minister further informed that the states/UTs have been requested to put in place a mechanism to share their details after fully distributing allocated food grains, with the Department of Food and Public Distribution, by and large on the pattern adopted in the case of PMGKAY. "The states/UTs may report the distribution details with leftover/balance food grain, if any, to this Department not later than 15 July 2020," he said.
Paswan said that he will convene a meeting with all state/UT food ministers next week to review the distribution of food grains.
