Govt allocates 5 mn tons of additional foodgrains to BPL families

NEW DELHI: To clear surplus stocks, the government today allocated additional five million tonnes of rice and wheat to state governments for supply through ration shops at subsidised rates to BPL families.

"The Centre has allocated 5 million tonnes of additional foodgrains to the state for below poverty line (BPL) families," an official statement said.

This would include over 3 million tonnes of rice and 1.92 million tonnes of wheat.

Uttar Pradesh would get maximum foodgrains of 8,18,879 tonnes followed by Maharashtra (5,01,059 tonnes), Bihar (5,00,213 tonnes), West Bengal (3,97,152 tonnes), Tamil Nadu (3,72,918 tonnes), Madhya Pradesh (3,16,324 tonnes) and Andhra Pradesh (3,11,570 tonnes), the statement said.

The decision to allocate additional foodgrains was taken by the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on food recently to address the storage crisis that has aggravated due to higher production and procurement in the last few years.

At present, foodgrains stock in the government godowns has crossed 82 million tonnes against the storing capacity of 64 million tonnes.

The government supplies rice and wheat at subsidised rate of Rs 5.65 per kg and Rs 4.15 per kg, respectively, to 6.52 crore BPL families.