The Assam government has written to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to allocate rice to around 10 lakh poor families in the state who are not covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

According to data of the state revenue and disaster management department, the 10 lakh families have around 44 lakh members who are eligible to get free rice from the Centre as ration during the nationwide lockdown period.

Nearly 60 lakh families, covering about 80 per cent of Assam’s total population are covered under the NFSA. Besides their regular monthly subsidised rice (5kg per head per month), the Centre has allocated an additional 5kg rice per head per month for a period of three months as a lockdown relief for NFSA card-holders.

Sources in Dispur said that 10 lakh families, who are not covered under NFSA, were left out of the relief measure. Although the state government had announced a financial aid of Rs 1,000 per each of these families, it was not sufficient for the people.

“Amid these issues, the Centre recently announced that 5kg rice will also be given per person per month, to those who are not covered by NFSA but covered under similar schemes being run by the state governments. In case of Assam, the problem is that there is no other scheme other than the NFSA, unlike its neighbouring states like Arunachal Pradesh,” the source said.

“The state revenue and disaster management department found that the number of families who are not covered by the NFSA but financially underprivileged is 9,95,381 lakh with 44,79,215 lakh members. These families are equally in distress during this lockdown period and need immediate relief,” said the source.

“The state food and civil supplies department on Thursday wrote to the FCI that it should consider allocating rice to the nearly 10 lakh families arguing that the Assam government does not provide ration cards other than those under the NFSA,” the source said, adding that 2.23 lakh quintals of rice will needed to cover these families.

Meanwhile, the revenue and disaster management department has informed the food and civil supplies department that it has sanctioned its own funds for distribution of 5kg rice per person as one-time assistance to the nearly 10 lakh families not covered under the NFSA.