TN seeks Bengal rice

Chennai:

The union government is examining a proposal from the state government seeking supply of quality rice from West Bengal and Punjab which is similar to the one produced and consumed in the state.

Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution K V Thomas told reporters on the sidelines of national seminar on ‘Food Safety – Role of Standards’ that discussions will be held with the officials to see whether the finer quality rice can be made available from these states.

To a query on the exact quantity of rice being sought by the state, he said the exact quantity of rice needed by the state has to be discussed.

Official sources said that the state government has requested the Union government to provide finer quality of rice which is more or less consumed by the people of the state.

“We are getting good quality rice from Punjab and Andhra Pradesh but what we want is that the rice should be more or less similar to the one being consumed by the people of the state. Since the rice from these West Bengal is more or less similar to the one consumed by people of Tamil Nadu, we are requesting the Centre to supply it,” said the source.

The union minister said that under the existing TPDS (Targeted Public Distribution System) allocation for the state, the share of rice is 35.57 lakh metric tonnes and wheat is 1.65 lakh metric tonnes.

“The food subsidy for Tamil Nadu is Rs 6,420.44 crore for this fiscal. With the proposed additional allocation of 5 million metric tonnes of food grains for below poverty line, the share of the state will be 3.72 lakh tonnes and the additional subsidy will be Rs  691.27 crore. So the total subsidy will be Rs 7,111.71 crore for Tamil Nadu alone. And the entire subdsidy for the country is to the tune of Rs 88,000 crore," he said.