'41 mn tonne foodgrains needed for food security law'

The requirement of foodgrains for priority households under the proposed National Food Security Act is 41.1 million tonne, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution KV Thomas said during Question Hour that the present allocation of foodgrains for the families living under the poverty line is 27.7 million tonne.

"The requirement of foodgrains for priority households under the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA) as assessed by the Centre is 41.1 million tonne against the present allocation of 27.7 million tonne for BPL families," he said.

"Accordingly, the additional requirement of foodgrains for distribution among the poor under the proposed NFSA will be around 13.4 million tonne," Thomas said.

JP Agarwal (Cong) wanted to know why foodgrains vanished while being transported to various places for distribution. He also wanted to know whether there was any penal action against those who indulge in pilferage of foodgrains.

The Minister said the Centre incurs expenditure on procurement of foodgrains, its storage, transportation up to the designated depots in the states/UTs and other incidental costs.

Expenditure on dealer's commission, transportation of the allocated foodgrains from designated depots and its distribution within the state is borne by the states, he said.

Thomas said the monthly allocation of foodgrains for Above Poverty Line (APL) families has been increased in June to 15 kg per family per month in 20 states/UTs and to 35 kg in northeastern states of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim besides the hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand.

Rewati Raman Singh (SP) criticised the Government for using old data for providing state-wise details of monthly allocation.