Homeless, shelter-less to get subsidized food soon: Govt

New Delhi, Dec 30 (IANS) The Centre is set to bring out a scheme soon that will provide subsidized rations to homeless people and those who don't have ration cards."That process is on, and the development of a system is in its final stages. Then it will be put to trial. The whole system is basically to capture all homeless, shelter-less destitute, who might not have ration cards," Secretary, Food and Public Distribution, Sudhanshu Pandey told a media conference on Thursday."The state governments may not have issued them the ration cards for reasons of either lack of identity or lack of home address. All these issues will be addressed," Pandey said.The new and upcoming system that is going to be institutionalised will really fill in the last gap of that most vulnerable section population, the last missing link would also be covered, said an official from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.It would be announced formally later, the officer said.The Centre will be providing a subsidy of little less than Rs 4 lakh crore for this fiscal. This includes Rs 2.25 lakh crore of regular subsidy and another Rs 1.47 lakh crore offered as part of the Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). The subsidy provided last year was Rs 5.29 lakh crore, another officer told in answer to a question about subsidies.
--IANS niv/skp/

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