Karnataka, 3 other states have asked Centre to provide food grains under OMSS for state schemes: Muniappa

Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Rajasthan have asked the Centre to provide food grains for their state welfare schemes from the buffer stock under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS), Karnataka Food Minister K H Muniappa said on Wednesday.

The demand was made by these Opposition-ruled states at the national conference of state food ministers held in the national capital to discuss food and nutritional security and procurement of kharif crops.

On June 13, the Centre discontinued the sale of rice and wheat from the buffer stock to state governments under the OMSS amid inflationary pressure and concerns over monsoon.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Muniappa said the state government had requested for rice under the OMSS to fulfill their poll promise of providing additional 5 kilogramme over and above the entitlements under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

”However, the Centre has suddenly discontinued the OMSS for the states. Because of which, we have to opt for cash transfer instead of food grains for the next couple of months.

”We feel, it would be more meaningful and useful if actual food grain can be disbursed to the beneficiaries,” he said.

The state government has urged again the central government to re-start the OMSS scheme, where all states can get the food grains as per their requirement, he said.

Muniappa also said the demand was raised not only by Karnataka government but also by Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Jharkhand governments.

Around 17 food ministers and officials from 35 States and Union Territories (UTs) participated in the conference.

According to an official statement, Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal appreciated the procurement and distribution efforts by all states.

He asked the States/UTs to ”work together with the Government of India in the spirit of cooperative federalism.” Further, the minister asked all states/UTs to submit their pending claims or dues with the Union Government so that they can be settled at the earliest.

At the conference, it was decided to procure 26.14 lakh tonne of coarse grains in 2023-24 kharif marketing season while the expected distribution would be 22.31 lakh tonne.

Grading of procurement centres to ensure uniformity and quality, effective implementation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), implementation of the SMART–PDS scheme for end-to-end computerization of procurement and distribution of food grains, transformation of Fair Price Shops (FPS), among other topics, were also discussed.

There were discussions on action plan for the implementation of route optimisation study to bring down the distance involved in intra-state distribution and diversification of food basket through distribution of coarse grains/millets.

The best practices of States/UTs were showcased to foster cross-learning on various topics, including construction of Model-Fair Price Shops through MGNREGA funds by Uttar Pradesh, e-KYC and de-duplication of ration cards by Assam, Supply Chain Automation by Gujarat and quality assurance of rice fortification by Andhra Pradesh.

A demonstration of the Automated Multi-Commodity Grain Dispensing Machine – ‘Annapurti’ developed by the UN World Food Programme (UN-WFP) and Automatic Grain Analyzers developed for automated quality checking of grains was conducted.

In addition, a millet exhibition showcasing various millet products was held on the sidelines of the conference.