CHANDIGARH, MAY 9: The Union Government has been delaying the supplies of pulses to Punjab without any logical reason, which has caused a lot of inconvenience to the beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act in the state.
This was disclosed by Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Mr. Bharat Bhushan Ashu.
Divulging more, Mr. Ashu said that Punjab has received 10800 MT pulses under NFSA and PMGKAY. For speedy delivery of Pulses, department had written a letter to NEFAD in the first week of April 2020 but state had received 5565.94 MT of Urad Dal till last night.
Due to this dilly-dally, distribution of foodgrains to beneficiaries in Punjab is adversely affected in various districts particularly in Patiala cluster.
He said that the state government is pressing hard to mitigate sufferings of its people during the pandemic Covid19 but the apathetic attitudes of Union Government creates unwanted hindrances in this cause.
Mr. Ashu said that the department had raised the issue of slow pace of delivery in a letter dated April 30, 2020 to the Food and Civil Supplies ministry and urged for faster delivery of pulses from NAFED as the state received only 2646 MT till April 30 against total allocation of 10800 MT.
Underlinning the slow pace of delivery in Patiala Cluster which caters to SAS Nagar, Roopnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Sangrur districts, Mr. Ashu said the cluster had only received mearge 900 MTs of pulses against allocation of 2189.11 MTs with the last delivery received on May 2.
“The detailed district wise list of allocation to 5 designated districts i.e. Patiala, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar was sent to NAFED on 01-04-2020,” he added.
Pertinently, the State had received first consignment of 17 MTs at Ludhiana and 25 MTs at Jalandhar on 13th April 2020.
Food Minister said that the state has yet to receive 50 percent quota of pulses.
