The Centre will allocate rice or wheat additionally to Tamil Nadu in proportion to the increase in the number of ration cards as a result of inter-State migration, in the event of implementation of the scheme of “one nation, one ration card.”
Indicating this, R. Kamaraj, Food Minister, told The Hindu on Friday that the Centre would make the allocation quarterly to the State. “Our government will only be the facilitator in making the foodgrains available to eligible beneficiaries among inter-State migrant workers, as per their food habits. We will do what the National Food Security Act (NFSA) stipulates.” Even though the latest data on inter-State migrant workers in Tamil Nadu is not available, two reports indicate that Tamil Nadu is one of the leading inflow States and Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Assam are among the outflow States. The Economic Survey of the Union government for 2016-17, presented to Parliament, stated that during 2001-2011, Tamil Nadu received net migrants of 10.13 lakhs in the 20-29 age cohort.
Conducted by the Loyola Institute of Social Science Training and Research, Chennai, and the Indian Social Institute (ISI) of Bengaluru in 2016, a survey on inter-State migrants in Chennai and the neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur quoted a report of the State government, which found in 2014 that there were 10.67 lakh migrant workers, mostly unskilled.
As per the NFSA, only priority household (PHH) cardholders are entitled to rice or wheat or coarse grains at a rate of ₹3 per kg of rice or ₹2 per kg of wheat or ₹1 per kg of the coarse grains.
Tamil Nadu does not make any distinction between PHH and non-priority household (NPHH) ration cardholders. Rice is provided for free to about 1.89 crore cardholders. By insisting that provisions of the NFSA would be followed in respect of the inter-State migrant workers and the State’s measures would not be extended to them, the Minister hinted that they would not get free rice.
Also, they would not be eligible to obtain toor dal and palmolein oil, being given to ration cardholders under the special public distribution system at concessional rates. Confirming this, a senior official said the State government had worked out the scheme’s implementation in a way that it would not have to face extra financial burden.
