Centre delaying supply of pulses to Punjab, says Punjab minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu

In a release, Ashu said the department had raised the issue of the slow pace of delivery with the Union food and civil supplies ministry on April 30, 2020, as the state had by then only received 2,646 tonne of pulses against its allocation of 10,800 tonne under the NFSA and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana

Punjab food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said on Saturday that the Union government was delaying supplies of pulses to Punjab without any logical reason, leading to a lot of inconvenience to beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the state. He added distribution of foodgrain to beneficiaries had been adversely affected due to this across the state, but particularly in Patiala cluster.

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In a release, Ashu said the department had raised the issue of the slow pace of delivery with the Union food and civil supplies ministry on April 30, 2020, as the state had by then only received 2,646 tonne of pulses against its allocation of 10,800 tonne under the NFSA and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). He added that the department had also written to the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), but the state had received 5,566 tonne of Urad till Friday night.

The minister added that the Patiala cluster that includes Mohali, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Sangrur districts had received only 900 tonne pulses against its allocation of 2,189 tonne, with the last delivery received on May 2.