Food Corporation of India (FCI) is ensuring uninterrupted supply of wheat and rice throughout the country during the lockdown period. FCI is fully prepared to meet not only the food grain requirement under National Food Security Act (NFSA) @5 KG/Month/Beneficiary but also any additional demand including supply of 5Kg/Person for next 3 months to 81.35 Crore people under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. As on 31.03.2020, FCI has 56.75 Million MT (MMT) of Food Grains (30.7 MMT Rice and 26.06 MMT Wheat).
Even in this challenging operational environment, FCI is able to meet the increasing demand of food grains by gearing up the pace of supply of wheat and rice throughout the country mostly by Rail. A total of 53 Rakes are being loaded today i.e. 01.04.2020 carrying about 1.48 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) food grain stock. Since the day of lockdown i.e. 24.03.2020 FCI has moved 352 rakes carrying an approximate quantity of 9.86 LMT.
FCI is conducting e-auction under Open Market Sales Scheme (OMSS) for providing Wheat to the empaneled roller flour mills/State Government to ease the supply constraint in the market. In the last e-auction held on 31.03.2020, bids for 1.44 LMT wheat have been received.
In view of outbreak of COVID-19, apart from regular e-auction, District Magistrates/Collectors have been authorized to lift directly from FCI depots at OMSS reserve price to cater to the needs of Roller Flour Mills and other wheat product manufactures. Till now, 79027 MT Wheat has been allotted in the following states through this route:
Sr. No.
State
Quantity (in MT)
i
Uttar Pradesh
35675
ii
Bihar
22870
iii
Himachal Pradesh
11500
iv
Haryana
4190
v
Punjab
2975
vi
Goa
1100
vii
Uttarakhand
375
viii
Rajasthan
342
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Further, e-auction for rice is also conducted. In the last e-auction on 31.03.2020, bids for 77000 MT rice have been received from the state of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, J&K etc.
In addition, considering the emergent situation, States have been allowed to take rice under OMSS @ Rs. 22.50/kg without participating in E-auction to meet any requirement over and above the NFSA allotment and additional allocation done under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana Allocation. So far, 93387 Metric Tonnes (MT) Rice has been allotted to the following 6 states as per their requests:
Sr. No.
State
Quantity (in MT)
i
Telangana
50000
ii
Assam
16160
Iii
Meghalaya
11727
Iv
Manipur
10000
V
Goa
4500
Vi
Arunachal Pradesh
1000