Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday asked the Bihar government to soon address “gaps” in the list of beneficiaries under both the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Anna Yojana (PMGAY) through which food relief is provided to the poor during this coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) crisis.
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About 14.04 lakh beneficiaries under NFSA and 6.67 lakh beneficiaries under PMGAY are not updated in the State list and submitted to the Central government for foodgrains allocation, he said.
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To ensure the poor does not go hungry during the lockdown, the Centre is providing free 5kg foodgrains per person and 1kg pulses per household for three months under PMGAY. This is over and above 5kg foodgrains given at a cheaper rate under the NFSA through the public distribution system (PDS).
Mr. Paswan said Bihar has so far sent to the Central government a list of only 8.57 crore PDS beneficiaries under the NFSA instead of an estimated 8.71 crore beneficiaries as per the Census 2011, he added.
“There is a gap of 14.04 lakh beneficiaries under the NFSA yet. We have asked the Bihar government to provide the list at the earliest,” Mr. Paswan said in a statement.
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The Centre is allocating PDS foodgrains to Bihar under NFSA as per the list of 8.57 crore beneficiaries provided by the State government, he said.
On March 30, about 4.28 lakh tonne of rice was allocated to the State under the PMGAY as per the existing list of beneficiaries. However, the State government on April 3 sought higher allocation of 4.32 lakh tonne of rice giving an updated list of beneficiaries of 8.64 crore, he added.
Mr. Paswan said, “There was still a gap of 6.67 lakh beneficiaries under the PMGAY.”
Instead of addressing the gap, the Minister said that the Bihar government on April 28 demanded the centre to allocate PDS foodgrains as per the 2021 population.
Mr. Paswan said there would be 10.31 crore PDS beneficiaries in the State as per the estimated 2021 population. The Centre should allocate an additional foodgrains of 75,000 tonne to meet the demand of new beneficiaries. Mr. Paswan, however, informed the State government that a policy decision in this regard would be taken under section 9 of NFSA after publication of 2021 population figures.