BHUBANESWAR: Dismissing the BJP demand for a probe into the alleged irregularities in free ration rice distribution as a concocted story, the BJD on Thursday maintained that more than 95 pc of the allocation under different schemes have been distributed to beneficiaries.
Stating that the memorandum submitted to Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal by BJP MPs has exposed their ignorance, BJD national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sasmit Patra asked them to pressurise the Centre to release the pending food subsidy to Odisha and lift seven lakh tonne surplus rice through the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
The facts with the Ministry showed that Odisha is one of the best performing states in food grain distribution, Patra said, and added that instead of trying to tarnish the good work of the State government, the BJP MPs should advise their party to work more effectively in those states which are faring badly in food grains distribution.
Patra said under PMGKAY, 3.24 lakh tonne was allotted to Odisha for May and June, 2021 out of which 99.8 pc has already been lifted and 96.1 pc distributed. Similarly, for July and August, 2021, 3.24 lakh tonne was allotted to Odisha out of which 99.3 pc has been lifted and 84.9 pc distributed as on today. The rest would be completed in the next seven days, he added.
The BJD MP said that details have been uploaded to the Centre’s Annavitran portal which shows that Odisha has distributed 95.8 pc of the food grains. Targeting the BJP for its ‘false and baseless’ statements, Patra said that BJP ruled states have not been able to distribute one lakh tonne food grains compared to 2.75 lakh tonne by Odisha from July onward.