Telangana has a total of 54.19 Lakh ration card holders. While the Centre has provided subsidised foodgrains to 1.91 crore beneficiaries registered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the state government provides full support in Aadhaar seeding and Fair Price Shop (FPS) automation process.
Under the National Food Security Act, the state receives a monthly allocation of 1,08,000 MT of foodgrains (Rice) and the Centre bears the cost of Rs 364 crore monthly and Rs 4,367.5 crore annually at a subsidised rate of Rs 3 per kg rice.
So, while the Central government bears the entire cost from procurement to the distribution process, the Telangana government provides subsidised rice at the Central Issue price of Rs 3 per kg against the economic cost of the same at Rs 36.7 per kg. The state government gives Rs 2 while Re 1 is collected from the NFSA beneficiaries.
The Centre also provides additional free foodgrains under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKAY) with 95,811 MT of rice free of cost per month to NFSA beneficiaries of Telangana for which a monthly subsidy burden of Rs 351 crore is borne by the central government.
So far, out of 24 LMT allocated to the Telangana government, 20.64 LMT has been distributed in all six phases of PMGKAY.
Telangana government and Centre’s share of the rice supplied through fair price shops came into the limelight recently after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pulled up Collector of Kamareddy district Jitesh Patil over subsidised rice.
She said the Centre bears a lion’s share in the subsidised rice which is being sold to beneficiaries in the State at the rate of Re 1 kg. “The rice which is sold at Rs 35 in the open market was being distributed to people at Re 1 here. How much is the State government bearing?” she asked the Collector.
She said the Centre has been supplying the rice in shops by bearing all the costs, including logistics and storage, and was trying to get an answer whether free rice was reaching the people or not.
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