The State Food, Civil Supply and Consumer Protection Department has allotted 1.22 lakh quintal iodized salt for free distribution under Public Distribution System (PDS) in all 27 districts of the State during the current month, officials stated. This salt will be distributed free of cost to ration card holder families of ‘Antyodaya’ and ‘Priority’ category in the State.
As per the allotment orders, 9,915 quintal salt has been allotted to Bilaspur, 9,439 quintal has been allotted to Janjgir-Champa, 7,653 quintal salt has been allotted to Raigarh, 7,454 quintal to Raipur district, 7,007 quintal to Balodabazar-Bhatapara district, 6,915 quintal to Rajnandgaon, 6,842 quintal to Durg district, 5,914 quintal salt to Mahasamund, 5,015 quintal to Sarguja, 4,930 to Korba, 4,036 to Bemetara, and 4,491 to Kabeerdham district, 4,334 quintal to Bastar, 4,158 quintal to Mungeli, 3,939 quintal of salt to Jashpur, 3,890 quintal to Surajpur district, 3,331 quintal to Dhamtari, 3,147 quintals of salt to Balod, 3,348 quintal to Gariaband, 3,388 quintal to North Bastar (Kanker), 3311 quintals to Balrampur-Ramanujganj district, 2,715 quintal to Koriya district, 2,534 quintals to Kondagaon district, 1,438 quintals to South Bastar (Dantewada), 1,333 quintals to Sukma district, 1218 quintals to Bijapur district and 609 quintals of salt has been allotted to Narayanpur district.
The State Government had also been distributing 2.60 lakh tonnes food grains and 15,000 kilo litre kerosene oil under PDS. About 11,077 fair price shops are currently in operation under the Public Distribution System in the State .The gram panchayats, co-operative committees and women’s groups are operating the fair price shops
About 90 per cent of the citizens domiciled in Chhattisgarh are now being provided with food and nutrition security, claim officials. They also claimed that Chhattisgarh is the first State to give ‘Right-to-Food’ to its people and make it into a law. This apart, landless labour families ,small farmers upto five acres of land, unorganised labour like-barbers, shoe-makers, carpenters, washermen, rickshaw-pullers families, building construction labour-coolies and other menial workers, are included in the priority list under the Act.
The Chhattisgarh’s Public Distribution System under Antyodaya and Priority families schemes provides 35 kg food grains at Rs1 per kg. Since June 2014 single member category ration card-holders under destitute segment are provided 10 kg food grains free of cost.