State to give 30 lakh migrants free rice - Coupons to be issued to workers who can collect foodgrain from ration shops

TT, 17.06.20, Jalpaiguri: The state government will give free food grains through ration shops to around 30 lakh returnee migrant workers who are back from other states during the Covid-induced lockdown, state food minister Jyotipriyo Mallick said on Tuesday.

Mallick told The Telegraph over phone from Calcutta that the government would give every such migrant worker 5kg rice each for June and July, irrespective of their ration card status.

“We plan to distribute the food grains at the end of June or latest by the first week of July. They (migrant workers) will be issued special coupons against which rice would be given. Also, if there are at least three ration cards in the family of a migrant worker, that family will also get 1kg lentils per month,” the food minister said.

Earlier in the day, the minister held a videoconference with district magistrates and food controllers to roll out the project, a source in the food and supplies department said. The source added that around 30 lakh migrant workers were so far back in the state.

Under the arrangement, the administration, with help from block offices, panchayats, civic bodies and the police, will issue coupons to migrant workers who can collect food grains from ration shops. “Those in quarantine centres or hospitals can in writing authorise a family member to get the food grains,” an official added.

When migrant workers started returning to Bengal amid the lockdown in May, the Mamata Banerjee government had announced that such workers would get jobs under the 100-day work scheme under the MGNREGA so that they could earn a livelihood back home.