Kashmir reels under food crisis
Suffers monthly shortfall of 10817 MT food grains , J&K’s dependence on imports increasing
The J&K government has submitted a detailed report about the food crisis emerging in the state due to Government of India’s failure to allocate food grains from Central pool as per 2011 Census.As per the official figures, there is a monthly shortfall of 10817 MT in food grains, comprising of rice, wheat and sugar, coming under the public distribution system in Kashmir valley.
The state government report reveals the monthly demand for rice is 39123 MT, but Kashmir receives only 32527 MTs with a shortfall of 6,596 MT. Similarly, the shortfall of wheat per month is recorded at 2993 MT. The current demand is 6522 MT as per 2011 Census while the Valley receives only 3529 MT.
As per the report, sugar supplied to Kashmir as per 2001 Census is mere 3,811 MT against the actual demand of 5,039 MT.
The report also reveals that during 2011- 12, import and off-take of food grains stood at 908.22 and 856.27 thousand metric tonnes, which depicts that by every passing year the import is swelling by 15 to 20 per cent.
In a detailed report submitted to Government of India, state government has given the reason for the shortfall due to the failure of GoI to allocate of food grains from central pool to state as per the Census 2011.
The report states that Jammu and Kashmir is mostly dependent on the import of food grains from other states and the magnitude of this dependence is increasing day by day.
The population of Kashmir division, including Leh and Kargil, was 57.12 lakh in 2001 which as per the 2011 Census it has swelled to 71.99 lakhs.
The report reveals that state produces only 1627.50 thousand tonnes of food grains for feeding its population.
“The gap between demand and supply in Jammu and Kashmir State is increasing at a faster rate than the increase in the production level,” it states.
As per the report, the diversification of food grain area to non-food and cash crops besides rapid urbanization has added to the shortage of food in the state.
According to Agriculture Department, more than two lakh kanals of agriculture land have been converted for commercial and other purposes in Kashmir region.
During the recent Legislative Assembly session, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had said that the state government would take up the issue of food crisis in the state on priority basis.
“The government will take up on priority the issue of providing ration to the people as per the Census of 2011. We will streamline ration distribution in the state immediately,” Chief Minister had said replying to a supplementary in the Legislative Council.
Meanwhile, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali said more than five lakh families were deprived of ration in the state including around 27 lakh people in the valley.
“As of now we are getting the supply of ration to 1972000 families while as per 2011 Census total families are more than 24 lakhs. So there is a huge deficiency of food in the state,” Choudhary said.
He said the state government has already raised the matter with central government and had lately deliberated with Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in this regard.
“It is one of the main points of our Common Minimum Program with our alliance partner BJP. Recently, Mufti sahib held a meeting with union minister in which this issue was raised,” Choudhary said.
He said the government has already started the process of distributing the ration as per 2011 Census.
“We have constituted the district level committee to register the uncovered families that include BPL and APL families and to submit the report within one month,” the minister said.
Choudhary said once the report is finalized it would be sent to central government “so that new quota of ration will be allocated as per the new data”.
