Minister launches 'one nation, one ration' scheme

NT Correspondent

Mysuru: State food and civil supplies minister K H Muniyappa on Monday rolled out the 'one nation one ration scheme' from Mysuru in the state.

Speaking after launching the scheme, he said that it will help migrant workers to receive their quota at all authorized fair price shops and other ration shops across the state.

Any migrant worker from Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar and other states can avail the ration by sharing the details of their ration card with the shop owners.

They can collect their monthly quota of ration from these shops by giving their biometric thumb impression. State has 85 lakh to one crore migrant workers working in various sectors including construction, road works, highways projects, sugarcane, brick manufacturing, coffee estates and other fields.

Currently, the state government has been distributing five kilogram including two kilograms of ragi along with rice per unit of BPL card holders under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

It also transferring funds through DBT at the rate of Rs 170 for the remaining five kilograms.

As announced by his government to provide 10 kilogram of rice for BPL card holder per unit beneficiary, the minister said that his government has continued its efforts to buy the required quantity of rice from Food Corporation of India, including from neighbouring Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states.

State needs around 2.28 lakh metric tons of rice every month to supply an additional five kilogram of rice it announced for BPL card holders.

Though the union government is providing rice to over four crore BPL beneficiaries under NFSA scheme, still over 40 lakhs beneficiaries were left out of this central scheme.