Over 9 crore get rice free of cost from ration
Kolkata: The number of beneficiaries availing facilities of free ration in the state have seen a significant rise in the month of May with over 9 crore people across the state getting rice from ration shops.
"9,30,86102 have collected ration in the month of May which is 10.7 per cent higher than the month of April. We hope it will further rise by 5 per cent in the month of June," said Jyotipriya Mallick, state Food and Supplies minister .
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that all beneficiaries —more than 10 crores people in the state will get free foodgrains till September in the backdrop of Covid-19 and reduced opportunities to earn livelihood because of the lockdown. Apart from the normal beneficiaries , the state Food has already made allotment of ration for the migrant and stranded workers who do not possess ration cards.
The district administration in the district and the Commissioner in case of Kolkata Municipal Corporation will identify the beneficiaries (migrants) and issue coupons in their respective names . They will have to collect their free ration allotment from the ration shops in their nearest location. The migrants will be provided free ration in June and also in July. They will be getting 5 kg rice per head and 1 kg whole chana per family.
As per estimate of the state Food department the number of migrants who will be availing these facilities are 6018377. The total allocation of rive is 60183.77 metric tonnes.
The minister reiterated that the state government has already ensured sufficient stock of food grains for the 21000 ration shops across the state. 6.1 lakh people in the state are National Food Security Act (NFSA) ration card holders while another 4 crore are under the Khadya Sathi scheme of the state government.