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Bengal

Govt to start distributing wheat under food security schemes from July

State Food and Supplies department will start distributing wheat among beneficiaries under the food security scheme from July.

According to a senior official of the department, wheat will be procured after floating a tender. It is expected that the processes of distributing wheat will be started from July.

The department has decided to distribute wheat as it has a demand among the people. It has also been learnt that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) supplies wheat under Central food security schemes and as there was a scarcity of wheat in the FCI's stock, selling of wheat in the open market was restricted.

After new wheat came in, the FCI's godown was again filled with adequate amount of the crop.

Meanwhile, ration shops are being set up at Dooars of North Bengal. In the first, phase ration shops will be set up at 126 locations. The state Food and Supplies minister Jyotipriya Mullick has recently held a meeting at Uttarkanya in Siliguri in this regard.

It may be mentioned here that the Bengal government had decided to distribute free ration to mothers with newborn babies across the state so that they do not suffer from malnourishment and for this, the department will distribute coupons to around 30,000 mothers across the state.

The department has also chalked out a detailed plan to bring more number of pregnant women under the scheme. According to a senior official of the department, mothers can now show the coupons at ration shops where they will be supplied with rice, wheat, gram and lentils.

They would be given the coupons at the time when the leave the government hospitals or sub-centres, after their deliveries. One of the main purpose of this initiative was to bring down malnutrition.
The department has already instructed the ration shops to provide five kg of rice, 2.5 kg of wheat and 1 kg of lentil every month to the mothers against the coupons.
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