-Down to Earth Mounting expenses, under-provisioning of food subsidy budget leading to a huge debt is highly worrisome A fiscal crisis has been brewing in the last few years. Mounting food subsidy arrears — payable to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) due to ‘under-provisioning’ of food subsidy expenses in successive union budgets — has forced FCI to take loans to finance its operations. FCI is the central agency that manages procurement, storage...
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Foodgrain stocks fall marginally despite PMGKAY -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express For July 1, the normative minimum stocks to run the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) and other welfare schemes, plus maintain a strategic reserve over and above that, are 27.58 mt of wheat and 13.54 mt of rice. Despite efforts at disposing of surplus foodgrains – including by distributing these free under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and a special scheme for migrant labourers returning to...
More »Only 13% of allocated free food grain handed out to returning migrant workers, reveals govt data -Harikishan Sharma
-The Indian Express Eleven states and one UT did not distribute even 1 per cent of the quantity they had lifted to the beneficiaries during June. These are Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Tripura. Only 13 per cent of 8 lakh metric tonnes of free food grains allocated for returning migrant workers under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package have actually reached migrants during May...
More »Migrant foodgrain scheme reached less than 15% of 8 crore target -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Telangana had zero percent distribution The scheme to provide free rations to eight crore migrants under the Aatmanirbhar package reached less than 15% of its target beneficiaries, according to data provided by the Food Ministry on Wednesday. Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Telangana had zero percent distribution and seven States had less than 1% distribution. The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in mid-May to support...
More »Grain aplenty and the crisis of hunger: on universal Public Distribution System -Dipa Sinha
-The Hindu The focus on One Nation One Ration Card is misplaced when what is needed is a universal Public Distribution System With the economic crisis continuing on the one hand and the health system crumbling under the burden of rising COVID-19 cases on the other, it is clear that it will take a long time for things to get back to “normal”. Unemployment is high and it will take a while...
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