Steps Taken to Ensure Adequate Foodgrains in Northeast India

New Delhi, Oct 2 : The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution today said it had taken various initiatives to ensure continuous, regular and adequate supply of foodgrains to all States in the North-East in view of their remoteness, inaccessibility, difficult terrain and special requirements.

An official press release said that, considering the requests of some of the States and the conditions prevailing in NE Region, the Government has increased the above poverty line (APL) allocation to 35 kg per family per month to Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim with effect from August this year.

At present, all the NE States are being allocated maximum foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) at the rate of 35 kg per family per month.

A total additional allocation of 2.93 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice to this area has been given so that in every state the APL allocation also becomes 35 kg/month /family . This has benefited States, especially Assam , Manipur and Meghalaya, where earlier the APL quota was only 19.9 , 13.2 and 22.1 kg per month only 43,000 tonnes had been already lifted.

Under open market sales scheme for sales by State Governments to retail consumers, a total of 3.38 lakh tonnes has been allocated, out of which 1.08 lakh tonnes has been lifted by State Governments. Now this scheme has been extended up to March 31, 2011 so that the States may take full advantage of this.

In May 2010, the Centre had given additional allocation of 1.25 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice to all card holders at a subsidized rates of Rs. 8.45 per kg and Rs 11.85 per kg, respectively. About 62,500 tonnes have been lifted by State Governments.

On September 7, below poverty lines (BPL) families were given an additional allocation of 1.08 lakh tonnes which is to be lifted in 6 months.

In addition, 49,683 tonnes of wheat have been allocated to Food Corporation of India (FCI) for sale to traders and bulk consumers so that availability in the market increases. Of this, 14,300 tonnes have been already lifted . Thus, a total of more than 9 lakh tonnes of foodgrain have been allotted to the NE region in the last few months, the release said.

According to the release, the region has inadequate storage facilities, which creates problems in ensuring regular supplies to the PDS system from time to time . The present storage capacity of FCI in NE States is 4.58 lakh tonnes, which is insufficient to meet PDS and OWS requirements.

The Ministry said it was constructing godowns in the NE States under plan funds. It has made a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs for the construction of godowns totalling 5.25 lakh tonnes of storage capacity at an estimated cost of Rs 568 crores, taking into consideration the specific difficulties of the region.

The Ministry urged the State Governments to identify suitable land in all the selected locations for this purpose.