Omar asks Centre for more food grains allocation

Warning that Jammu and Kashmir could be headed for a drought, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday asked the Centre for higher food grains allocations to meet the increased demand.

Warning that Jammu and Kashmir could be headed for a drought, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday asked the Centre for higher food grains allocations to meet the increased demand.

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Omar said his government has already informed the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution that the requirement of food grains for distribution at affordable rates under the PDS system was much more than the current allocation.

"We in our State are heading for severe drought next summer in view of low levels of precipitation during this winter. Fortunately, now rain and snow have arrived and we expect some respite.

But, we are still not very sure how things will shape up. So the best way forward is to prepare for the worst," Omar said at the Chief Minister's conference on prices of essential commodities.

He said the current allocation was 63,067 MTs per month (42,931 MTs rice and 20,136 MTs wheat) at 35 kg per family.

"This (allocation) is for 18.02 lakh ration tickets whereas we have issued 19.60 ration tickets thus leaving about 1.58 lakh ration tickets without allocation.

"Then the scale of 35 kgs per family per month is also not sufficient as traditionally our scales have never been less than 11 kgs per soul per month in the cities and towns and 5 kgs per soul per month in the villages," he said.