Two Central schemes started during the extended lockdown to provide additional food grains end by June 30, but so far the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution has not taken any steps to review whether they will be extended and are awaiting a word from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, in a letter to Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Ramvilas Paswan on Monday, urged the Centre to extend the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY), which covers the 80 crore ration card-holders, providing 5 kg of rice or wheat each month and one kg of pulses for each of the households.
According to sources, so far, he is the first among Chief Ministers to make this request.
A second scheme was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to cover 8 crore migrant workers who do not have ration cards and are supposed to get free grains of 5 kg of rice or wheat and 1 kg of chana or pulse.
“We ourselves don’t know whether the schemes will be extended or not and are awaiting instructions from the PMO,” a top official at the Food Ministry said.
As per government data-- in April, nearly 74 crore, in May 71 crore and in June so far nearly 8 lakh ration card-holders have got additional food grains.
The Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, targeting the non-ration card-holders, has been painfully slow to take off. As per the government data, till June 8, only 59 per cent of food grains allocated under the scheme had been lifted by the State governments.
It was critical to extend both the schemes, for primarily three reasons, Associate Professor of economics, IIT Delhi, Reetika Khera, who has been involved with food security issues told The Hindu .
Ms Khera said, “The severe hit people have taken because of an unplanned lockdown and its adverse economic impact would be felt for some time to come. Ideally for next six months, the government should universalise public distribution. If not, the schemes should be extended for a minimum of three months at the very least. Two, because the monsoon months are known to be hungry season since food supplies from any previous harvest are likely to have run out, and three, because the government had 80 million tonnes of food grains at the end of April, far in excess of its buffer stock requirement. Giving it to people right now is better than risking that some part of it spoils, which is likely, since rains are coming.”
