Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Nod for 387 Village Grain Banks

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre has cleared setting up of 387 Village Grain Banks in the State to ensure food security for the Scheduled Tribe population and other vulnerable sections.

The Village Grain Banks would be set up in chronically food scarce and natural calamity prone areas such as drought prone areas, hot and cold deserts, tribal areas and inaccessible or remote hilly areas and aimed at providing safeguard against starvation during the period of natural calamity or during the lean season.

The Centrally sponsored scheme, which was originally drawn up in 1996-’97 but which was revised recently, envisages establishment of grain banks from which the beneficiary families can borrow foodgrains during times of scarcity. The Village Grain Banks would be set up under the aegis of grama panchayats and grama Sabhas, self-help groups or Non-Governmental Organisations.

The Union government would allocate food grains to each Grain Bank at the rate of one quintal per family for an average of 40 Below Poverty Line/Antyodaya Anna Yojana families.

The groups that run the grain banks would have the freedom to decide the periodicity of the ‘loan’ and its method of replenishment.

The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has sanctioned Rs.2.23 crores for Kerala for meeting the cost of foodgrains to be procured from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) under the scheme.

The State government had submitted the proposal for setting up the 387 Village Grain Banks in 2006. The State had set up a few grain banks on an experimental basis through the Tribal Welfare Department and found these to be effective in tackling foodgrain shortage in the tribal hamlets where they were set up.

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