The Jharkhand food, civil supplies & consumer affairs department has sanctioned 325 more dal bhat kendras across the state to fight hunger in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

A letter to this effect had been issued by additional chief secretary of the department Arun Kumar Singh on April 18.

Speaking to The Telegraph on Monday, Singh said: “These 325 vishisht dal bhat kendras are in addition to the already running 388 regular dal bhat kendras, 498 vishesh dal bhat kendras and 342 additional dal bhat kendras across the state. The 325 new centres have been sanctioned in the larger interest of the poor and homeless and those who cannot buy food for themselves.”

He said the 342 additional dal bhat kendras were being run by the district police on the directive of Jharkhand director-general of police M.V. Rao.

With the vishisht dal bhat kendras, the total number of such free food centres across the state will go up to 1,553.

Singh said the new centres would run till May 31.

The additional chief secretary said though the 325 new centres had been sanctioned, it was up to deputy commissioners (DC) of the 24 districts to see whether their existing dal bhat kendras were enough to cater to the hungry. If not, they can start operating the vishisht dal bhat kendras.

The state food and civil supplies department has sanctioned 15 vishisht dal bhat kendras for Palamau, five each for Garhwa, Latehar, Sahebganj, Khunti, Simdega, Gumla and Ramgarh, eight for Koderma, 10 each for Godda, Lohardaga and Seraikela-Kharsawan, 20 each for Bokaro and Hazaribagh, 22 for Giridh, 30 for Dhanbad and Ranchi and 35 for East Singhbhum. .

Singh said 200gm free cooked food would be provided to 200 people per day at each of the 325 new centres. The district administration will provide the dal bhat kendra operators Rs 5 per plate.

The food and civil supplies department will spend

Rs 1,40,59,500 for procuring rice for these new centres from the Food Corporation of India.

The state home, jail & disaster management department will provide a financial support of Rs 1,36, 50,000 to the DCs to procure vegetables, pulses, fuel, edible oil, soybean, salt and spices.

The state food civil supplies department expects these 325 vishisht dal bhat kendras to feed 65,000 poor per day.

According to Palamau district supply officer Amit Prakash, blocks such as Mohammadganj, Pipra, Ramgarh, Medininagar, Chainpur, Paton, Harihurganj, Chhaterpur, Pandu, Hussainabad and Bishrampur will have one such centres each.