State Food Supplies Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain has urged the Union Government for release of the food subsidy bill amounting to Rs 10,333 crore.
Expressing concern over the pending subsidy, non-evacuation of surplus rice from the State and lifting of wheat from the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Swain has sought Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal’s intervention to resolve the issues in paddy procurement and Public Distribution System (PDS).
Of total pending subsidy of Rs 10,333 crore, the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation is yet to receive Rs 7,931.90 crore as provisional subsidy and Rs 2,402.19 crore as advance subsidy by end of April 2022.
“The State is bearing an additional interest of Rs 5,454.67 crore because of the delay in release of subsidy amount,” Swain tweeted.
In a series of tweets, he requested the Centre for evacuation of around 13 lakh MT of surplus rice out of 52 lakh MT rice procured in the State in the 2021-22 kharif marketing season and deliver a higher quantity of fortified parboiled rice. He also requested the Department of Food and Public Distribution to give additional target of fortified parboiled rice during 2021-22.
