Sonia Gandhi writes to PM Modi, seeks food entitlements for poor

Her letter comes a few days after she had written to the Prime Minister suggesting ‘austerity measures’ to divert funds for battling the coronavirus outbreak, among others.

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“Firstly, the provision of 10 kg grains/person to NFSA beneficiaries must be extended for an additional period of 3 months, i.e.,till September 2020. Given the chronic economic distress faced by these beneficiaries, the food entitlements may be provided free of cost,” she wrote in the letter.

Sonia’s second suggestion was that 10 kg of grains per person be provided free of cost for six months for those who are facing food insecurity and do not have ration cards. “I would like to bring to your notice that all migrant labour who have been facing acute distress may not be holding NFSA cards. In addition, many deserving people have been excluded from the NFSA lines,” wrote Sonia.

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Elaborating that the current crisis has pushed several relatively food secure families into food insecurity and poverty, Sonia wrote that the two suggestions are critical to safeguard people against food inflation. “Furthermore, the release of food grains to the states as suggested above will help create storage space with Food Corporation of India (FCI) to ramp up Rabi season procurement of Wheat and Rice,” she added.

The Congress president concluded her letter with, “In our fight against the pandemic we must ensure that no one faces hunger.”

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Meanwhile, in a routine press briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, the health ministry said that 796 new COVID-19 cases and 35 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 9,152 and deaths 308. “Twenty-five districts across 15 states which had reported cases earlier have contained the virus and have not detected new ones in 14 days. This is a positive development,” said Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal.

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