Up to 75% of the rural population, as well as 50% of the urban population, are legally entitled to receive subsidised foodgrains through the Targeted Public Distribution System, according to the Act.
The people entitled under the NFSA act will receive food grains at u201cZERO COSTu201d from 1st January 23u2019 to 31st December 23u2019.The central government will bear the food subsidy of more than Rs 2 lakh crore for the year 2023, the food ministry said in a statement.The food ministry said that Union food secretary Sanjeev Chopra held a meeting with all state food secretaries on Friday on distribution of free foodgrains and to resolve all technical issues. For smooth implementation, general managers of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) have been asked to visit three ration shops every day in different areas of their jurisdiction mandatorily and submit a report on a daily basis.The ministry has also issued advisories to states and UTs on the mechanism to provide dealeru2019s margin (of the ration shop owners) for distributing foodgrain to beneficiaries.Earlier, the beneficiaries covered under the NFSA were paying a subsidised rate of Rs 1-3 per kg till December 31, 2022. Alongside, they were also getting free grains under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) launched in April 2020 to provide relief to the poor during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Image source-goanconnection.comBut the PMGKAY that was extended multiple times ended on December 31, 2022. Thereafter, the two food subsidy schemes were subsumed under the new integrated scheme with the Cabinet approval.About 159 lakh tonnes of wheat and 104 lakh tonnes of rice will be available as on January 1, 2023, as against the respective buffer norms requirement of 138 lakh tonnes of wheat and 76 lakh tonnes of rice as on January 1, it had said recently. This news itself inserts u201chappyu201d in the new year 23u2019. Hope this scheme removes hunger from the lives of many this year.
