How chana came to the rescue of the Centre's plan to distribute free pulses

Distributing chana is easier than other varieties of pulses as it only requires cleaning and sorting and can be consumed whole; it was also abundantly available with Nafed

The distribution of free pulses under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) was extremely low in the early stages of the programme, according to officials, because the preferences of the states and what was there on offer did not sit comfortably.

The states weren’t at fault, either, because the Central government had left it to them to select the varieties they wanted to distribute.

However, the situation improved after the states were denied the option.

Earlier the states wanted to distribute the varieties that weren't readily available with Nafed (the main custodian of the Central government’s pulses stocks) and not the ones