Raipur: Chhattisgarh state is all set to commence ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme in the state from the month August, 2020.
In a video conference meeting, Chhattisgarh food minister Amarjeet Bhagat, told with the Union Food Minister Ramvilas Paswan the scheme will be implemented in Chhattisgarh from the month of August this year.
State food minister urged the Union Food Minister to extend distribution of free of cost food grains to BPL families for three more months from July to September and allow free of cost food grains to migrant labourers in July month as well. He informed that presently, migrant labourers are being provided free of food grains for the month of May and June.
THe Union Food Minister praised the transparency in Public Distribution System (PDS) scheme in Chhattisgarh state. He said that the PDS scheme of Chhattisgarh, holds top rank in the country. Union Food Minister informed that the proposals of distributing food grains free of cost, under Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana, to BPL families for three more months and to migrant labourers in July month are under consideration. The union food minister assured of extending every possible support in this regard.
Food minister Bhagat said that due to lockdown to contain the coronavirus epidemic, people and labourers in other states of the country are coming back to Chhattisgarh. These migrants were provided free of cost food grains in May and June under Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana. He requested to provide free of cost rice to these migrants in the month of July as well.
He said that under National Food Security Act, Central Government has provided free of cost food grains to 51.50 lakh ration card holders in April, May and June. Poor families are still struggling with livelihood. Bhagat informed that besides the 51.50 lakh beneficiaries, nearly 14.10 lakh additional ration card holders under state scheme are being provided food grains by the state government at its own expenses.
Bhagat requested the union food minister that just like beneficiaries of National Food Security Act, the beneficiaries of state schemes should also be provided free of cost food grains for next three months. He said that during the lockdown, 73000 new ration cards have been issued, which should be recognized under the National Food Security Act as well.
Bhagat thanked the Union Food Minister for expanding the limit of Chhattisgarh’s contribution of rice in the central pool from 24 lakh metric ton to 28.1 lakh metric ton. Food Department Secretary Dr Kamalpreet Singh and other officials also attended the video conference meeting.