BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has requested the Centre to provide more wheat for supply to ration card holders under the public distribution system (PDS) of the state.
Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra said a request has been made to increase the wheat quota of the state to 20 per cent of the total foodgrains supplied under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
The Centre reduced the wheat quota of the state in 2016 following a request from the then BJD government to provide more rice to Odisha as it is a rice consuming state. Of the 21 lakh tonne foodgrains allocated to the state for PDS sale back then, the state was getting rice and wheat in the ratio of 79:21. The state government asked for more rice in the ratio of 85:15.
As the state was a major rice producing state with availability of surplus rice, the Centre acceded to the government’s proposal as a special case. However, the demand for wheat has increased with changing food habits of the people.
Since the open market price of wheat is more than Rs 28 a kg as against Rs 22 a kg of Food Corporation of India (FCI), the prices of atta (flour) also keeps high. An increase in PDS quota of wheat to the state may help calm the price of atta, official sources said.
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. The previous government has been providing free rice to over 9.97 lakh beneficiaries under the state food security programme as they are not covered under the NFSA.