High level meeting on 'free rice' scheme on June 4

Thiruvananthapuram, May 28 : Union Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies K V Thomas will hold discussions with Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on June four at Thiruvalla.

Attending a Meet-the-Press Programme, orgainsed by Kesari Memorial Journalists Trust here, the Union Minister said top officials from Central Food and Civil Supplies Department and a team led by the Chief Minister would hold discussions on the issue.

Annoncing that a survey would be conducted to identify APL and BPL familes in the state immediately, he said about two crore bogus ration cards were eliminated at the national level after verification.

Many technical measures have been implemented to reduce the wastage of grains during various stages of procurement, including harvesting, transportation and storage, he said.

With these measures, the FCI reduced the wastage to 7,000 million tonne (0.02 per cent) last year, compared to nearly 70,000 million tonne (2.5 per cent) in the previous years, he added.

--UNI

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