Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday rolled out the ‘Prime Minister’s Food Supplementation for Priority Households Scheme’ for Jammu Kashmir.
“Concept of a welfare state is that the poor have rights over the government’s resources. In every policy, not ink, but human emotions must be taken care of. In this context, I announce the rolling out of the ‘Prime Minister’s Food Supplementation for Priority Households Scheme’ for J&K,” the LG said addressing a news conference at Raj Bhawan here.
“I have been maintaining that all schemes formulated under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi envision that all poor families get dignified life to live. This has also been the endeavour and priority of the J&K government to make downtrodden people focus on its policies,” he said.
The LG said that under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, 35 kg food grains per household are provided to 2.29 lakh households in J&K.
“This is benefitting the poorest of the poor,” he said. “This scheme is aimed to strengthen food security for marginal sections of the society. This will ensure accessibility, affordability, and availability of adequate quantities of food to Priority Households.”
Besides 5 kg food grains per person to Priority Households (PHH) beneficiaries was provided free of cost.
“From last several days, many people have met me and said they can’t sustain this quantity of rice. After discussions, we discussed how to help people. So we decided to roll out ‘Prime Minister’s Food Supplementation for Priority Households Scheme,” the LG said.
Under the scheme, additional 10 kg of rice will be given to people in PHH category besides their free ration on subsidised rates.
He said there are 14.32 lakh ration cardholders with around 57.24 lakh beneficiaries in J&K.
“This scheme will augment monthly food availability to PHH category on a subsidised rate while ensuring it does not exceed 35 kg per household. Citing an example, a family of three members will get 15 kg rice free and additional 10 kg on subsidised rate from the J&K government,” the LG said.
He said that for additional allocation, the J&K government would procure the rice from the Government of India at Rs 34 per kg.
“The rice will be provided to the beneficiaries at Rs 25 per kg. They will get a subsidy of Rs 9 per kg,” the LG said. “The new scheme will incur a financial implication of over Rs 180 crore a year to the government.”
The augmentation was discontinued last year after the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS-D) run by the Government of India was discontinued.
“This scheme has now been revived at a revised price. To remove the financial burden of poor families and ensure access to food and nutritional security, a new scheme has been launched,” he said. “Under the new scheme a PHH with one beneficiary will get an additional allocation of 5 kg and a PHH with beneficiaries ranging from two to five would get an additional 10 kg, each month while maintaining maximum allocation per household.”
The LG said, “Now you will ask why only rice is provided and not wheat. There are two reasons for it. First, rice is in huge demand in J&K and second in the open market scheme, wheat has been dropped. When the sale of wheat under OMSS (D) resumes, the J&K government will include wheat in this scheme.”
He congratulated all the beneficiaries of this scheme in J&K saying, “In the near future more such schemes will be announced for the welfare of the people.
The LG was flanked by Commissioner Secretary Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, Zubair Ahmad.
