Odisha Govt Extends Free Ration Scheme by 3 Months, Plans to Spend Rs 49 Crores

The State government on Saturday instructed the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department to extend the benefit to persons covered by the state food security program after the center decided to extend free rations to the poor by three months.

More than nine lakh beneficiaries will receive five kg of rice for free every three months from October to December 2022, as per instructions from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the department.

For the supply of 13,575 tonnes of rice, the State government will incur additional expenses of Rs 49 crore. The free quota is in addition to the normal distribution, which is 5 kg per person per month at a highly subsidized rate of Rs 2 per kg, under the State Food Security Program.

Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, minister of food supplies and consumer welfare, stated that since these beneficiaries were not included in the National Food Security Act(NFSA), they are now covered by the State Food Security Program. Due to their poor economic conditions, the State government provided them with free rations throughout the Covid epidemic and after lockdown restrictions were lifted.

For those who are still beyond the NFSA's ambit but are covered by the State program, the State government has been extending the pro-poor scheme. The NFSA covers over 3.26 crore people in the State. The State government launched its program on October 2, 2018, to cover the excluded vulnerable people, since the Center set a cap on the NFSA beneficiaries and turned down its request to include extra eligible beneficiaries under the Central scheme.

Since the Center began giving free foodgrains to NFSA beneficiaries after a Covid-induced lockdown began in March 2020, the State government has been helping these families.

The pro-poor scheme has been repeatedly extended by the Center multiple times and the seventh phase is the recent extension of the supply of free food grains for three months.