The Maharashtra Government has approached the centre as it plans to provide the stranded migrant workers and labourers with food grains at a subsidised rate. The state government intends to allot food grains to the stranded migrants who don’t have ration cards.
Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal wrote to Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in this regard. Paswan holds the food and distribution portfolio in the Modi government. In his letter, Bhujbal sought 5 per cent subsidised food grains the state gets from the centre for stranded migrants who don’t possess the ration cards.
The food grains will be provided to the migrant workers and labourers for ₹2 per kilogram for wheat and ₹3 per kilogram for rice, Bhujbal said while informing that he has written a letter to Paswan seeking his permission for the distribution of grains to stranded people and migrants in Maharashtra due to the nationwide lockdown.
The centre earlier announced free rice to poor families in the state. However, the Maharashtra government has sought free wheat and dal too along with the rice.
The Maharashtra government has increased the number of meals under Shiv Bhojan Thali to 1.5 lakh. Earlier, the government was providing meals to one lakh people. The Shiv Bhojan Thali scheme is a highly subsidised meal available for the poor and the needy.
Since the nationwide lockdown has been extended till May 3, the demand for the Shiv Bhojan Thali schemes has increased, especially among the homeless and stranded migrant workers and labourers who are left with no money and work due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has also decided to provide the pension for three months - from April to June - to about 35 lakh people belonging to the deprived section of the society. The beneficiaries including widows, senior citizens, orphans and differently-abled will get the pension under various schemes of the government in the next two days.
India has been under nationwide lockdown since March 25 and on April 14, the same was extended till May 3 in the view of the increasing cases of the coronavirus or COVID-19.
Saffron ration cardholders: Maharashtra government to provide food grains at subsidised rates
Maharashtra government to provide 1.5 lakh meals under 'Shiv Bhojan Thali' scheme
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