The Kerala Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday to urge the Centre to increase the number of beneficiaries of the public distribution system and to restore the State’s ‘tide-over’ quota of wheat and the kerosene quota.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister G.R. Anil, who moved the resolution, said the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, in the State in 2016 confined the ration scheme to 43% of the population, i.e., 1,54,08,040 people, on the basis of an enumeration by the Union government.
In the process, the State, which was the first in the country to implement a universal public distribution system, had to exclude nearly 5 lakh families despite them satisfying the eligibility norms mandated by the law. The resolution has urged the Centre to include all deserving families under the ambit of the NFSA scheme by increasing the number of priority cards. It also appealed for restoring the ‘tide-over’ allocation of wheat that has been suspended until March 2023. In addition, the Assembly called upon the Centre to restore the original kerosene quota and roll back the hike in kerosene being provided to the fisheries sector.
