New Delhi,Apr 13:Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to extend the provision of providing free food grains to the National Food Security Act beneficiaries for additional three months.She also requested the prime minister to consider extending the free food grains provision to those facing food insecurity but do not hold ration cards.
Sonia Gandhi said that it was tragic that lakhs of vulnerable people across the country face chronic food insecurity due to lockdown despite India’s ‘large buffer stock of food grains precisely for exigencies like the current pandemic’.WelcomingModi government’s decision to provide free of cost, 5 kg grain/person in addition to the entitlements under the National Food Security Act from April-June, 2020, Sonia Gandhi suggested that the Centre should consider “extending the provision of 10 kg grains/person to NFSA beneficiaries for an additional period of three months ie till September 2020.”Additionally, she also suggested that “10 kg grains/persons may be provided free of cost, for a period of six months to those who may be facing food insecurity but not holding ration cards”.The Congress acting chief said 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 alleged
