The Union government's decision to discontinue the tide-over allocation of wheat has deprived 57 lakh non-priority ration card holders of their share of wheat through the public distribution system, Food and Civil Supplies Minister G.R. Anil told the Assembly on Wednesday.
He said that the government had allocated tide-over rice after stopping the wheat supply for the period from June 2022 to March 2023.
The extra wheat allocation for the non-priority card holders under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) has also been completely stopped from May 2022, and rice allocated in place of that. This will lead to a dire situation in which the non-priority card holders will not get any wheat through the public distribution system, said Mr. Anil.
High demand
"Although the Union government has allocated rice instead of wheat, this could lead to increase in prices of wheat and wheat-related products in the market. There is a huge population in the State which depends on wheat for their daily food needs due to lifestyle diseases," said Mr. Anil, who had on May 20 sent a letter to the Union Food and Public Distribution Minister demanding the reinstatement of the tide-over wheat share.
The State was receiving a monthly tide-over allocation of 6,459.074 tonnes of wheat. The population covered under NFSA had shrunk to 43% in recent times. Only 1,54,80,040 ration cardholders were currently eligible for ration under the law. Under such circumstances, a portion of the tide-over allocation of rice and wheat was being distributed among the non-priority sections that possessed the blue and white cards.
