Bhubaneswar (SunstarTV Bureau): As the COVID pandemic situation prevailing across country about 3.24 Crore people affected. Meanwhile, the Centre has decided to provide free foodgrains to the benificiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana-IV (PMGKAY-IV)
According to Food Corporation of India (FCI), the Odisha region General manager, Nitish Kumar Pradhan, on Monday said that, the 3.24 Crore Covid pandemic affected people will get free food grains for a period of five months, from July to November this year.
As per the statement, under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the food grains at a scale of 5 kg per person per month will be provided to all the eligible beneficiaries over and above the regular monthly basis.
Meanwhile, the Centre will bear the entire expenditure procurement, storage and transportation as well as distribution.
Pradhan further informed that, the Centre will spend Rs 39 per kg for rice and Rs 28 per kg for wheat for the beneficiaries.
Under the India Governmet scheme, approximately 1.08 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and 7.03 lakh metric tonnes of rice have been allotted for Odisha.
The benificiaries to get the rations after the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) Ltd will pick up the allotment from central pool stocks and FCI depots.
The entire cost of the foodgrains which comes to around Rs 3,044 crore for Odisha will be borne by the Centre under the scheme, he further said.
Pertaining to mention here that, the PMGKAY-III which was announced for May-June 2021, 43,000 Metrictonne (MT) of wheat and 2.82 lakh Metrictonne (MT) of rice was allotted for the state.
Meanwhile, the Union government has also spent about Rs 1,220 crore for extending the benefits to the people of Odisha.
