New Delhi: The Centre is in the final stages of developing a system to capture the data of homeless and the destitute having no ration cards, so that the benefit of subsidised foodgrains can be extended to them also, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Thursday.
Currently, the government supplies highly subsidised foodgrains at Rs 1-3 per kg to over 81 crore people having ration cards through public distribution system (PDS) as part of the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
Over and above the subsidised foodgrains, the government during the pandemic is supplying free foodgrains to NFSA beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
This scheme has been extended multiple times and is now valid till March 2022.
Since homeless and the destitute have no ration cards in the absence of an identity card or residential address, they are not covered either under NFSA or PMGKAY.
Asked about steps taken to cover this segment of the population, the Secretary said, "Very much that process is on and the development of a system is in the final stages and then it will be put to trial."
The new system being developed is basically to capture all homeless, shelterless destitute, who might not have ration cards, he said during a virtual media briefing.
State governments have not either issued them the ration card for reasons of lack of identity or lack of home address, he said, and added, "all these issues will get addressed."
Another Food Ministry official said states have lifted 11.21 lakh tonne of foodgrains in the current 2021-22 fiscal year for distribution to people not covered under NFSA.
State governments purchased over 11 lakh tonne of foodgrains under the Centre's open market sale scheme (OMSS) in 2021-22, he said.
Further, the official said state governments have managed to cover so far only 79.71 crore poor people out of the total 81 crore beneficiaries covered under NFSA.
State governments have been asked to immediately reach out to the remaining 1.6 crore, identify them and bring them under the ambit of NFSA, he said.
With states lifting grains via OMSS, the quantity of wheat and rice sold via this scheme has increased to 71.44 lakh tonne till December 29 this year as against 20.71 lakh tonne in the year-ago period.
Besides states, private companies and organisations have purchased the grains via OMSS taking advantage of the liberalized policy introduced this year to offload the surplus stocks of wheat, improve domestic availability and ease out storage crunch, he added.
Moreover, The Food Secretary on Thursday said that the government's food subsidy is expected to be a little less than Rs 4 lakh crore in the financial year 2021-22 as against Rs 5.29 lakh crore in the previous fiscal.
"We are expecting little less than Rs 4 lakh crore food subsidy this year," Pandey said during a virtual press briefing.
About Rs 2.25 lakh crore food subsidy is estimated for procurement and distribution of foodgrains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and an additional Rs 1.47 lakh crore has been incurred for implementing the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), he said.
During the 2020-21 fiscal, the government food subsidy stood at Rs 5.29 lakh crore, another Food Ministry official said during the virtual press conference.
The secretary also said the year 2021 was "an extraordinary year" for many reasons as the government made extraordinary efforts that were unprecedented in nature amid the pandemic circumstances.
One is that state-owned FCI undertook major transformation changes and there has also been 62 per cent growth in the ethanol blending program this year. Ethanol blending with petrol increased from 5 per cent to 8.1 per cent in one year, the highest ever, he said.
Under the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' (ONORC), there has been over 50 crore portable transactions, which delivered more than Rs 33,000 crore subsidy through foodgrains.
"You will be happy to know that during the pandemic period alone, over 43 crore transactions have happened with delivered food subsidies of a little over Rs 29,000 crore. This is exceptional," he said.
In the current month alone, inter-state transactions have crossed 2 lakh and Delhi alone has clocked 1.5 lakh transactions.
"Delhi which started very late but is registering one of the highest numbers of inter-state portable transactions through ONORC," he said.
During the year, the Secretary said that PMGKAY has also been an exceptional programme under which foodgrains delivery has been in the range of almost 93 per cent, which has provided much-needed succour to the poor across the country.