Food and Civil Supplies Minister G.R. Anil has criticised the Central government for allegedly denying the State its rightful ration dues and weakening market intervention initiatives to control the price rise of essential commodities.
Mr. Anil added that the Centre has ignored numerous appeals made to enhance the State’s food grain allocation.
“Kerala used to receive around 16 lakh metric tonnes of food grains prior to the implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013. The annual allocation has been drastically cut to 14.25 lakh metric tonnes. The Centre had also slashed the tide-over allocation of food grains that used to be distributed among the non-priority sections,” he said, while responding to questions at the Assembly on Monday. He pointed out that Kerala, “a food-deficit State”, required around 40 lakh metric tonnes of food grains per year to meet its domestic requirements.
Under such circumstances, the Centre has refused to increase the coverage on priority sections in the State, proportionate to the increasing population. Repeated demands made to sanction outstanding dues amounting to ₹1,079.51 crore on account of the minimum support price provided to farmers for paddy procured have also been ignored, Mr. Anil alleged.
Emphasising the government’s market intervention initiatives, Mr. Anil said the Supplyco has been suffering a loss of ₹12 for every kg of Sabari K-Rice being distributed at ₹29 (Jaya variety) and ₹30 (Matta and Kuruva varieties).
