About 17.95 lakh quintal rice had been allocated for the ration card holders under the Public Distribution System (PDS) for the month of January 2016.
The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department in an official press release said that the ration is meant for the month of January to all 27 districts of the State, officials stated.
The Antyodaya ration card-holders are allocated 5.32 lakh quintal, Priority card-holders (11.64 lakh quintal) and Special Category and Physically Handicapped card-holders (3687 quintal) . Rajnandgaon district was allocated 92,387 quintals and Raipur district (98,911 quintal).
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among 15 states in the country with a completely decentralised system for procurement of rice and wheat under Centre’s ‘Decentralized Procurement Scheme (DCP)’.
The Central Government has started encouraging the State Governments to adopt decentralised procurement system for wheat, paddy and rice. Under Decentralised Procurement Scheme (DCP), food grains is procured and distributed by the State Governments themselves, officials stated.
Under this scheme, the designated DCP States procure, store and issue foodgrains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and other welfare schemes of the Government of India. The decentralised system of procurement has the objectives to ensure that Minimum Support Price(MSP) is passed on to the farmers, to enhance the efficiency of procurement and to encourage procurement in non-traditional States, thereby extending the benefits of MSP to local farmers as well as to save on transit losses and costs.
This also enables procurement of foodgrains more suited to local taste for distribution under the TPDS. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) will accept only the surplus food grains after deducting the needs of the states, from these State Governments (not millers) which require to be moved to deficit states.