Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Ramesh Dhawala, in a press communiqué said that the State was being allocated quota of essential commodities by the Central Government on the basis of 2001 census, which was considerably less than the actual requirement of the State at present. He said that due to the indifferent attitude of the Centre, 11,63,264 Above Poverty Line consumers of the State were getting 9 kg rice and 18 kg flour per month on a ration card instead of 15 kg rice and 20 kg flour.
Dhawala said that the Centre had prescribed quota of levy sugar at 700 gram per person every month but the State was only getting 4698 MT of levy sugar as against the requirement of 5317 MT. The Minister said that before April, 2009, State was getting 5411 KL of kerosene oil, which had been reduced to 2208 KL per month by the Centre at present. Similarly, the State was getting 1762 loads of LPG against the requirement of 2230 loads, said he.
Dhawala expressed concern over the reduction of quotas of essential commodities over the last few years by the Centre and said that he had urged the Centre for restoring the quota of essential commodities of the State on number of occasions but the situation remained grim.
