Delhi has lifted 5,739 MT foodgrains till July 4: FCI
New Delhi: Working on a mission mode to ensure lifting of foodgrains meant for the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantra Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), FCI's general manager (Delhi region) Sudhir Kumar said that of the 72,780 MT additional food grains allocated by the Centre to Delhi state for the month of May and June, 100 per cent lifting has already been completed by the Delhi state through DSCSC by June 15 and 72,77,995 beneficiaries have been benefitted from it.
Notably, the Centre has allocated dry ration for the distribution of 5 kgs of foodgrains per person per month to all NFSA beneficiaries apart from their regular allocation for May and June under the third phase of PMGKAY allocation.
Under the fourth phase of the scheme, the Centre has allocated 1,81,950 MT food grains to Delhi government for next the five months, which means from July to November and lifting of foodgrain has already started, Kumar said, adding that 5,739 MT of foodgrains have already been lifted as of July 4.
Giving details about the bumper procurement done by FCI's north region executive director Sanjiv Kumar said, "Even when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak, the FCI procured a record purchase of 5954.55 MT of wheat benefitting 760 farmers and an amount of Rs 11.76 crores has been transferred directly to farmers' bank accounts."
Also, after a gap of 5 years, the FCI's Delhi region procured 27.6 MT of wheat from farmers at the MSP during RMS 2020-21, Sanjiv Kumar added.
Replying to a question on foodgrain wastage, the executive director said, "The FCI's north region has not reported any wastage of grains as there is a robust storage capacity. The FCI has a storage capacity of 900 lakh MT and out of that only 1,800 MT get damaged due to some other reasons. In Delhi circle, there is no wastage as it's all storage facilities are scientific."
However, he maintained that if any political leader tries to lure beneficiaries by taking the credit of the free-ration scheme of the Centre, actions would be taken against them as per the law.
