New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal Parliamentary Party members today submitted a memorandum to Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution asking him for Release of pending food subsidy of Rs. 14,292.51 crore along with Rs. 6,187 crore towards the additional interest incurred by Odisha.
In the memorandum, the members have written that the Odisha Government led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been on the forefront of ensuring record production of food grains and being the third largest contributor of rice to the PDS system. While the responsibility for procurement of rice from disha rests with the Union Government, in order to ensure that the farmers of Odisha do not face any problems, the Odisha Government signed an MOU with the Government of India to be a Decentralised Procurement (DCP) State and help the farmers by procuring food grains on behalf of the Government of India.
In this reference, there is a total pending food subsidy amounting to Rs. 14,292.51 crore that the Government of India is to pay the Odisha Government. Out of this Rs. 14,292.51 crore, Rs. 11,689.21 crore is towards provisional food subsidy and Rs. 2603.30 crore is towards advance subsidy.
Apart from this, the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation is yet to be paid Rs. 6,187 crore towards the additional interest it has incurred till 30.11.2022 cumulatively due to the delay in release and short-release of subsidy by the Government of India. This amount still remains un-couped and should be paid by the Government of India.
We, the MPs of Biju Janata Dal, as public representatives from Odisha, and in the interests of the lakhs of farmers of Odisha, especially those from western Odisha, request you to kindly release Rs. 14,292.51 crores of pending food subsidy to Odisha comprising of Rs. 11,689.21 crores as provisional subsidy and
pending advance subsidy of Rs. 2603.30 crores, the memorandum read.