Continue NFSA with PMGKAY till pandemic is over: CPI-M
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 09 2021:
Pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on June 7 announced extension of PMGKAY provision till November to benefit 80 crore people, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has pressed the central government for continuing NFSA with PMGKAY till the pandemic is over.
In a release, CPI-M state secretary Kshetrimayum Shanta informed that distribution of PMGKAY rice to the people for May and June cost Rs 25,232.92 crore to the government exchequer.
According to the scheme, the government is supposed to distribute an additional 5 kg of rice/wheat with 1kg of pulses per month per person to the enlisted beneficiaries.
Now, as the government has announced that the NFSA card holders would be getting free 5 kg of rice/wheat with 1 kg of pulses per month per person only till November, it literally means that the Government is stopping NFSA till November.
That means the rice quantity for the month of May and June will be decreased to half, he contended, while adding that it is unacceptable.
So, NFSA with PMGKAY should be continued till the pandemic is over, he demanded.
Ridiculing that the Modi Government has been forced to withdraw its faulty and disastrous "liberalised vaccine policy" in the face of strong opposition, pushback from states and Supreme Court's criticism of it, Shanta continued that it has had to accept the demand for free vaccines for all citizens.
He asserted that people will reject the condemnable effort by the Prime Minister, through his national broadcast, to level false charges against state governments and shift the responsibility to them.
The "liberalised vaccine policy" was a unilateral decision of the central government, he pointed out.
However, the failed vaccine policy has not been fully reversed but the Government has chosen to continue the dual pricing policy.
As much as 25 per cent of vaccine production is still reserved for the private sector.
This is nothing but a license for loot by private manufacturers to make super profits, Shanta denounced, while explaining that at a time of acute vaccine shortage, the continuation of such a policy will dilute and weaken the need for universal vaccination essential to prevent a third wave of the Corona virus.
Only the rich can afford the exorbitant pricing of vaccines for the private hospitals permitted by the Government, he added.
Shanta further demanded for withdrawing of the 25 per cent reservation for the private sector.
The Central Government must procure all the vaccines manufactured in India and bought globally and distribute it to states in consultation with them, he continued.