Staff Reporter / New Delhi

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan has said that Food Corporation of India has made all arrangements to dispatch additional food grains to the states for migrant workers under the scheme announced under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday announced that all the States and Union Territories will be given additional food grains for the migrant labourers at the rate of five kilograms per migrant worker and one kilogram Chana per family per month for two months. The allocation of food grains for May and June will be made free of cost for the purpose.

Migrant labourers not covered under National Food Security Act or without a ration card in the States and UTs in which they are stranded at present will be eligible under the scheme. About eight crore such migrant workers are expected to be benefited from the scheme. Eight Lakh Metric Tonnes of food-grains and 50 thousand Metric Tonnes of Chana will be allocated. About 3,500 crore rupees will be spent on this intervention which will be fully borne by the Central Government.

State governments will be responsible for the implementation of the scheme. During the lockdown period, the government is taking several measures to ease the hardships of all section of society including poor, migrants and standard people.