Why lakhs of ration card holders in Kerala were deprived of free rice

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the prices of foodgrains and other essential commodities have shot up of late, the Kerala Government has failed to distribute 13,000 tonnes of rice that was allotted by the Union Government for free distribution to poor ration cardholders

Five kilogram of rice is to be distributed free every month among the yellow and pink ration card holders in the priority category under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY).

However, there was found to be a shortfall of around 5,000 tonnes in September, and over 8,000 tonnes in October.

This mismatch was found during a stocktaking by the Food and Civil Supplies Department.

This much amount of rice would have been sufficient to distribute to around 27 lakh cardholders.

In Kerala there are 41 lakh cards in the yellow and pink categories with 1.54 crore members.

Many cardholders did not get their full share of allotted rice as there was a delay in delivering the rice from the NFSA godowns that fall under the Department to the ration shops in September and October. (NFSA denotes National Food Security Act.)

Therefore, the rice that was in stock at the shops were distributed to the cardholders.

The cardholders were hopeful that they would get the remaining share in October, but the State Food and Civil Supplies Department decided to give the earlier share to only those who had not received any rice previously.

This resulted in a huge shortfall in the distribution.

The state department has claimed that the rice distribution was delayed as the rice from the Centre was received in two phases.

The figures released by the Food and Civil Supplies Department corroborate the Manorama report, published on October 10, stating that the free rice allocation to Kerala has been cut short by the Union Government.