More rotis in poors' plate as govt partially restores wheat allocation

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday announced partial restoration of wheat allocation for the beneficiaries of the flagship free foodgrain, Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY), from next month, which will ensure lakhs of beneficiaries in over half a dozen states, including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Odisha have more rotis on their plates.
The restoration of wheat allocation comes almost two years after the government had reduced its quantity 10 states due to less production. Union food secretary Sanjeev Chopra said 35 lakh tonne of additional wheat will be allocated under the PMGKAY scheme.
At present, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) supplies 185 lakh tonne of wheat annually for the free foodgrain scheme and other welfare programmes. With the additional allocation, the free ration scheme will rise to 220 lakh tonne, but will be short of the 280 lakh tonne it used to allocate prior to May 2022.
Chopra said there is enough stock of wheat with the FCI and around 100 lakh tonne of the foodgrain is available with the traders as per the voluntary declarations made by traders and stockists. This is higher as compared to the corresponding period of last year. He ruled out resumption of open market sale operations of wheat to bulk buyers from the FCI stock.
Meanwhile, in another development, Chopra said the Centre has approved the launch of a Rs 1,000 crore credit guarantee scheme for banks, which will provide comfort to banks to give loans against electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (eNwR) for farmers and traders using government-registered warehouses.
He said this will address the anticipated credit risk of lenders. The government has launched an online platform which seamlessly enables farmers to get bank loans for the next crop against their agricultural produce stocked with godowns registered with Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA). This facility will help farmers avoid distress sale of fresh harvest and curtail dependence on money lenders.