The State has about four lakh stranded migrant workers, according to the identification done by District Collectors.
Stating this in the context of State Food Minister R. Kamaraj’s interaction with Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan through video-conferencing on Friday, an official release stated that though the Central government had allocated 35,732 tonnes of rice, the State would require only 4,300 tonnes as there were 4,00,782 stranded workers.
While the State government had lifted the required quantity of rice, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) was yet to supply “chana dal,” the release stated, adding that the State’s requirement of whole “chana dal” was 801 tonnes.
Recently, the Central government announced that for the benefit of stranded migrant workers, States would be allocated 5 kg of rice per person and 1 kg of “chana dal” per family, all free of cost, during May and June in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Till May 20, a total of 1,32,042 migrant workers went back from T.N. to their home places by 96 trains.
As for the status of the “one nation, one ration card” scheme , Mr. Kamaraj informed Mr. Paswan that the procurement of biometric devices and integration with point of sale (PoS) devices were in an “advanced stage of approval.” The State would complete the work by September for joining the scheme.
The State Minister also drew the attention of the Union Minister that the State had been supplied only 150 tonnes of processed “tur dal,” even though it had conveyed its requirement of 33,176 tonnes under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). He reminded the latter about the early release of the custom milled rice (CMR) subsidy of ₹2,609 crores to the State.
