Food and Civil Supplies Minister G.R. Anil has said that social welfare organisations, including orphanages and old-age homes, will continue to receive ration supplies from Kerala’s tide-over allocations of various commodities. These institutions will receive additional rice in place of the wheat allocation that has been slashed by the Centre, he added.
Replying to a submission by P.S. Supal (Communist Party of India) in the Assembly on Tuesday, Mr. Anil said the government will supply ration from the tide-over allocations this month onwards until the Centre provides commodities under the Welfare Institutions and Hostels scheme.
Welfare institutions such as shelter homes, orphanages, old-age homes that have been recognised by the Board of Control for Orphanages functioning under the Social Justice department, and hostels that operate under the Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes and Backward Classes Welfare departments are beneficiaries of the scheme. Each inmate in such facilities are being provided 10.5 kg of rice at ₹5.65 per kg, and 4.5 kg of wheat at ₹4.15 per kg currently.
The Centre has not provided any allocation under the particular scheme after the first allocation that had been provided during the 2018-19 fiscal. The issue had been brought to the notice of the Centre on several occasions, but to no avail, the Minister said.
In order to ensure the welfare of all residents in these institutions, the State government has provided 2,837.885 metric tonnes of rice and 736.027 metric tonnes of wheat ever since at an additional cost of ₹1.65 crore.
