HYDERABAD: Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, minister of state for food and civil supplies, stated that the Telangana state government had not fully distributed free rice to the beneficiaries during the Covid-19 pandemic under the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
On Tuesday, in the ongoing Parliament session, the minister was replying to Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s question on the rice distribution. The minister said the TS government had not yet distributed 11,833 metric tonnes under the PMGKAY-1, 26,627.21 metric tonnes under the PMGKAY-2 and 6,751.45 metric tonnes under the PMGKAY-3. He said the fourth phase of distribution under PMGKAY for July-November had not started yet.
The minister mentioned in his reply that the Central government last year allotted 7.66 lakh metric tonnes of food grains and this year 6.71 lakh metric tonnes under the PMGKAY.
Niranjan Jyoti also said that under the National Food Security Act-2013, the public distribution system would continue to be under the joint programme of the Central and state governments, adding that states were responsible for the supply of food grains to the beneficiaries through ration shops along with the selection of beneficiaries under the priority households (PHH) scheme.
Sanjay said the TS government was not ashamed of not distributing rice to the poor even though the Narendra Modi government allotted free food grains for the poor people in Covid time.
He lashed out at the Chandrashekar Rao government over its failure to feed the poor though the Centre allotted free rice. He also accused the Chief Minister of gaining political advantage by displaying his photos at ration shops. Sanjay Kumar demanded that the state government immediately put photos of Prime Minister Modi in all ration shops.
