Kashmir Unrest: Food ministry to distribute advance three-month rations

New Delhi: In the wake of “acute food shortage” in violence-hit Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Food Ministry on Friday assured the state authorities that it will provide advance three-month rations for public distribution in the valley. The Food Ministry officials said that a team of officials of the state government and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will be set up for assessing the feasibility of establishing modern foodgrain storage system in the state. [caption id=“attachment_2809708” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Ram Vilas Paswan. PTI[/caption] “As Kashmir is facing acute food shortage, the Centre has assured to provide an advance three-month ration for public distribution in the valley,” Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in a series of tweets. He said the central government will examine the state government’s demand for allocation of extra 4.30 lakh million tonnes of food grains “at lower rates”. Officials in the Food ministry said the state has currently been supplying food grain through public distribution system (PDS) on a monthly basis. “J&K had launched a new scheme in which five kg foodgrain are distributed to each ration card holder over and above current entitlement under the National Food Security Act (NFSA),” Paswan said. Paswan held a meeting on Thursday with Jammu and Kashmir Food Minister Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali. Officials said the state needs annually 7.51 lakh tonnes of foodgrain under the National Food Security Act. It has sought an additional 4.30 lakh tonnes of grain at lower rates. Henceforth, about 1.87 lakh tonnes of foodgrain will be supplied three months in advance to PDS beneficiaries in Kashmir.