india

Updated: Apr 13, 2020 18:29 IST

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to provide five kilograms of free rations to beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and suggested more measures to counter the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown.

In a fresh letter to Modi, she welcomed the provision of free rations in addition to entitlements under the NFSA during April-June, saying the Covid-19 crisis has pushed many relatively food secure families into insecurity and poverty. She also listed her suggestions to overcome the impact of the lockdown on livelihoods.

“Lakhs of vulnerable people across the country face chronic food insecurity due to the lockdown. This is tragic given that India has large buffer stock of food grains precisely for exigencies like the current pandemic,” Gandhi said.

This was the Congress chief’s sixth letter to the prime minister since March 23 on different issues related to the pandemic.

“I welcome your decision to provide free of cost, 5kg grain/person in addition to the entitlements under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from April-June, 2020. However, given the adverse impact of the lockdown and its prolonged impact of people’s livelihoods, I write to you to consider a few suggestions,” she wrote.

First, the provision of 10 kg of grains per person to NFSA beneficiaries must be extended by another three months till September, Gandhi said, adding food entitlements should be provided for free in view of the chronic economic distress faced by beneficiaries.

Second, the 10 kg of grains per person should also be provided for free for six months to those without ration cards but facing food insecurity. “I would like to bring to your notice that all migrant labour who have been facing acute distress may not be holding NFSA cards. In addition, many deserving people have been excluded from the NFSA lists,” she wrote.

Gandhi said the crisis has pushed many relatively food secure families into food insecurity and poverty, and insisted that population increases since 2011 were not considered for determining each state’s entitlement under NFSA.

“These measures are critical to safeguard people against food inflation, at a juncture where supply chain disruptions are causing price rise.”

Gandhi said the release of food grains to states will help create storage space for Food Corporation of India (FCI) to ramp up rabi season procurement of wheat and rice.

“In our fight against the pandemic we must ensure that no one faces hunger,” she added.

In her previous five letters, Gandhi talked about problems faced by construction and rural workers, apart from migrant labour, and demanded financial packages for them. She also sought the suspension of the Rs 20,000-crore “central vista” project and transferring all money under the PM-CARES fund to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PM-NRF) to fight the pandemic.