Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar pradesh has set a new record by distributing 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains in a single day during the lockdown.
The foodgrains were distributed through Aadhaar authentication on April 16 while maintaining social distancing norms amid the coronavirus pandemic, said Principal Secretary of the state’s Food and Civil Supplies Department Nivedita Shukla Verma.
“It was made possible due to preparedness at various levels while keeping in mind the norm of social distancing. It is a continuous process and the department is committed to ensuring the receipt of ration by each beneficiary at the right time and with full transparency,” she said.
The chief minister has further asked the authorities to ensure that those without ration cards and migrants should also receive proper meals during the lockdown that has been imposed to check the spread of coronavirus.
As many as 80,000 ration shops in the state are operational from 6am to 9pm on a daily basis. This has made possible the distribution of 5.2 million metric tonnes of rice to about 10.5 crore beneficiaries through 2.5 crore ration cards between April 15 and 18.
Commissioner of Food and Civil Supplies Department Manish Chauhan said two delivery cycles have been created to ensure ration for each and every beneficiary.
“The change in the foodgrain delivery cycle has also been made on the first cycle of the month which will be from the 1st to 12th, while second cycle will be from 15th to 26th of the month,” he said.
During the first cycle of distribution in Uttar Pradesh between 1-12 April, over 7 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were distributed to over 13 crore people. Of these, about 35% was distributed for free.
Additional Commissioner of the department Sunil Verma said two per cent of the card holders (that equals to more than 6.5 lakh beneficiaries) were distributed ration through the ‘State Portability’ scheme.
It helps a card holder from collecting foodgrains from any ration shop across the state, apart from the ration shop from where it is registered.
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