Poor get no foodgrains in Seemandhra

Highlights

The State food subsidy programmes – distribution of Rs one per kg rice and Amma Hastam ( a basket of nine essential commodities at Rs 185 ) for BPL families, launched by the State Government, gone out of reach for the poor as the administration has come to a standstill in the strike -hit Seemandhra region after people launched intensified agitation against the bifurcation of State in August first week.

  • Agitation severely affects PDS since August
  • Not a grain lifted in 4 dists; others do partial job
  • Amma Hastam reaches only 50% population

Patan Afzal Babu

Hyderabad : The State food subsidy programmes – distribution of Rs one per kg rice and Amma Hastam ( a basket of nine essential commodities at Rs 185 ) for BPL families, launched by the State Government, gone out of reach for the poor as the administration has come to a standstill in the strike -hit Seemandhra region after people launched intensified agitation against the bifurcation of State in August first week.

With the employees of state Civil Supplies and Revenue departments boycotted their duties and joined actively in the united Andhra struggle in the 13 districts of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema , the Public Distribution System (PDS) has completely collapsed leaving over 70 lakh families among 1. 20 crore (out of 2.01 crore in the state) in Seemandhra in severe hunger due to non supply of food grains in the last two months.

According to official figures provided by state Civil Supplies Corporation Limited, which oversees the functioning of PDS in the state, rice stocks at Mandal Level Stock ( MLS) points have not been lifted in Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore and Kadapa districts this month. The last date to lift the stocks to distribute them is September 20. The Corporation officials said the fair price shop owners stopped to lift food grains from stock points as the officials did not give clearances to the shop owners.

The officials at Mandal level civil supply authority and Revenue officials should give their nod before releasing the quota for a month. Not a single kg of rice is lifted in the above mentioned five districts so far.

In Vizianagaram, only 1,159 metric tonnes ( mt) of rice out of 3,132 mt allocated was released . The position in some other districts is: Krishna 909 mt out of 5,296 , Srikakulam 932 mt out of 4,244 , Chittoor 404 mt out of 4,364 and Anantapur 2,800 mt of food grains was only released from the 5,028 mt quota.

State General Manager (PDS) SM Asha said out of 3.2 lakh mt of foodgrains , 1.80 lakh mt was alloted to Seemandhra region. But, the Corporation could distribute only 50 per cent of the total allocations in August and September due to ongoing strike in non- Telangana districts. As there was no option, the district authorities have been asked to release rice quota to fair price shops directly by taking undertakings from the shop owners.

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