June 30, 2020
During the last three months of great misery and facing varying degrees of restrictions and lockdowns on the public movement and other economic activities, one of the biggest challenges faced by the State Government – apart from the public health issues was the challenge posed by COVID-19 – and that challenge has been to ensure food security for state’s population – where millions of people have their incomes wiped out or considerably reduced leading to curtailing to purchase essential necessities.
FCI has to provide adequate quantity of food grains all over the State under the NFSA and PMGKAY so that there is no shortage of food in any cities or villages, infact any corner of the Rajasthan state. The FCI has fulfilled its responsibility with full dedication. So far, 07.136 lakh metric tons of wheat under PMGKAY and the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” package have been issued to the State. About one thousand employees and workers of FCI have been engaged and have worked with full capacity in this effort that ensured the food grains reached to the beneficiaries without much delay.
Other than this, the FCI also meted out demands made by state governments and non-governmental organizations (NGO’S) successfully. With stringent rules of lockdown, the challenge was to deliver food to every person in every corner of the State. Also, the amount of food grains provided to eligible beneficiaries under NFSA and other welfare schemes was doubled, as under the PMGKAY and the “Atmanirbhar” package announced by PM, every individual was to be provided an additional five kilograms of food grain at free of cost (FoC). FCI willingly accepted this challenge and also completed it efficiently during this critical time. FCI has sufficient stocks to ensure food security for the State. On date 20.42 LMT food grains are available with the Food Corporation of India in Rajasthan and procurement is in progress.