Punjab is feeding the nation. The northern state accounted for 46 per cent of the total food grain movement undertaken by the Food Corporation of India in the last few days, sending it to the rest of the country.
Since the FCI started moving food grains to meet demands arising out of the lockdown, it has moved 605 rakes carrying about 16.94 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) food grains across the country in last 12 days.
Punjab has contributed with 7.73 LMT followed by Haryana (3.02 LMT), Telangana (2.04 LMT) and Chhattisgarh (1.15 LMT).
“Continuing with its efforts to ensure that enough food grain stocks are made available in every part of the country during countrywide lockdown, FCI has set a new record in single-day movement by moving 70 rakes carrying 1.93 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) continuously for two days on April 3 and 4,” the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said.
Since the lockdown started on March 24, FCI has done an average movement of 1.41 LMT food grain per day as against the pre-lockdown daily average of about 0.8 lakh MT.
Among the consuming states, maximum induction was done in Uttar Pradesh (2.07 LMT) followed by Bihar (1.96 LMT), West Bengal (1.65 LMT) and Karnataka (1.57 LMT).
For the North East, 1.4 LMT food grains have been inducted during the lockdown period.
As on April 4, FCI has 55.47 Million Metric Tonnes of food grains (31.23 MMT rice and 24.24 MMT wheat) in the central pool.
This extra movement of food grains is being done to meet demand under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and additional allocation under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY). Under the foods security act, 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban which stands around 80 crore persons are provided with food grains. The government had allocated an additional five kilograms of food grains to the existing five for next three months.
“FCI is providing wheat and rice directly, without going through the e-auction route, at open market sale rates to ensure continuous supply of food grains in the open market,” the statement said.
The government said wheat is given for meeting the requirements of manufacturers of wheat flour and other wheat products based on the assessment of requirements done by the respective District Magistrates. Rice is given to the state governments for further distribution through their channels. So far FCI has allotted 1.38 LMT Wheat in 13 states and 1.32 LMT Rice in 8 states under this model.
