March 16, 2015
Food for all: Bengal shows the way
West Bengal Government under the leadership of Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee had laid focus on food security for all. Various steps have been taken by the Trinamool Government to provide food grains at the remotest corners of the State, especially to the financially backward classes, the distressed and the poor.
Here are some achievements of the West Bengal Government, since Trinamool took office in 2011 May:
Storage Capacity:
When Trinamool Government took office in May 2011, the storage capacity of the State was 40,000 MT. In the span of 3.5 years, new storage capacity of 3.8 Lakh MT has been created with a cost of Rs 370 Crore.
The Government has set a target of 5.755 Lakh MT and the balance will be completed by the end of the Financial Year 2015-16.
Public Distribution System:
The Government has undertaken a project of digitisation of ration cards. Since May 2011, 7.8 Crore cards have been digitised, which is 82% of the population. The Minister in Charge along with his officials have made surprise checks in the ration shops, which has helped in stopping the wide spread corruption which existed before May 2011.
More than 90 lakh fake ration cards have been identified and cancelled in the last 3.5 years, thus stopping the leakage in the PDS.
Food for all:
More than 3.2 Crore BPL listed people from Jangalmahal, Singur, closed tea gardens, Aila affected Sunderbans and few blocks of Birbhum are getting subsidised rice at Rs 2/kg and wheat at Rs 5 per packet of 750 gm.
More than 4 thousand Severely Acute Malnourished (SAM) children have been provided additional 9.5 kg of food grains per month, under nutritional support programme.
Procurement of food grains:
More than 1000 paddy procurement camps are put into operation. More than 4.5 lakh MT of paddy has been procured under the Minimum Support Price System.
In 2010-11, the rice farmers earned around Rs 19,095 Crore and since the time the new Government took office, there has been a steady rise of the income of the farmers. In 2013-14, rice farmers earned around Rs 34,366 Crore.
