Bhubaneswar: Ration card holders in Odisha will get wheat along with rice from October this year with the Centre revising wheat-rice ratio and increasing the allocation of wheat by 35 LMT.
The Central Government has written to nine states, including Odisha, in this regard. “A committee of ministers has decided to revise the wheat-rice ratio and increase the allocation of wheat by 35 LMT. Accordingly, the allocation of rice and wheat under NFSA/ PMGKAY has been revised in 9 states– Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal,” the letter said.
There will be no change in cost-sharing on account of such distribution including food subsidy, intra-state transportation and dealer’s margin, it added.
In August, the Odisha government requested the Centre to increase the wheat quota of the state to 20 per cent of the total foodgrains supplied under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). This came eight years after wheat quota was reduced following a request from the then BJD government to provide more rice as it is a rice-consuming state.
Around 3.26 crore people of the state are covered under NFSA under which five kg of free rice or wheat is provided to each of the beneficiary every month.
