Kerala government today asked the Centre to reinstate the allocation of food grains to the state alleging that implementation of the Food Security Act has reduced the state's share of grains by around 2 lakh metric tonnes.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is in Delhi on a two-day visit, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the state's issues regarding the Public Distribution System.
"We used to get 16.02 lakh metric tonnes of food grains. But ever since the Food Security Act has been implemented, the state's share has been reduced to 14.25 lakh metric tonnes. Centre is blaming it on the norms of Food Security Act," the chief minister said.
"The Kerala government has asked the Centre to reinstate the allocation of food grains to the state," he said.
"We produce only 15 per cent of our required demand for food grains. This is because we produce cash crops which actually will fetch more foreign revenue to the country. Centre used to allot additional food grains to the state considering this fact," Vijayan said.
He blamed the former UPA government at the Centre and the earlier UDF government in the state for cancellation of extra food grains allotted to the state and said "when the Food Security Act was implemented, this peculiar situation of Kerala was not considered."
The Chief Minister also claimed that the state was now burdened with an additional responsibility of providing ration to around 35 lakh migrant labourers.
Vijayan requested the Centre to consider Kerala while allotting All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the Union Budget.
He said that the Prime Minister's response to the state's issues was reassuring. He also met Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan and discussed the state's issues related to ration.
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