Ranchi: The Jharkhand government will provide one kg of gram dal per month from August to 65.34 lakh beneficiary families covered under the National Food Security Act and Jharkhand State Food Security Scheme. The Food Supplies Department has decided to buy pulses from the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed). For the purchase of Chana Dal, the Directorate of Food and Consumer Affairs floated a tender for the selection of the supplier through a reverse auction platform. But the supplier could not be found.
The department will have to take the consent of the state cabinet to buy pulses from Nafed. The department’s proposal has also been received towards Nafed. To check the quality of Chana Dal supplied by NAFED, the Directorate of Food and Consumer Affairs will get it tested from a recognized lab.
After the completion of the investigation, gram dal will be supplied to the shopkeepers of the public distribution system through door step delivery in the godowns of the State Food Corporation located in the blocks. Chana Dal will be distributed by shopkeepers through an e-posh machine. The ration shopkeeper will take one rupee per kilogram from the beneficiary. This amount will be the commission of the shopkeeper.
Apart from this, the state government will not pay any additional amount to the PDS shopkeeper. In the year 2022-23, the Directorate of Food and Consumer Affairs had floated a tender for the supply of Chana Dal. The committee rejected the tender for quoting more than the market rate. In the second tender also the rate was Rs 88.25/ per kg. This tender was also rejected as it was found to be higher than the market rate. Because of this, Chana Dal could not be distributed to the beneficiaries in 2022-23.
The rate of chana dal in the proposal of Nafed is less than the market rate. The government will also get financial savings by buying pulses from NAFED. The state government will have to spend Rs 436 crore to provide pulses to the beneficiaries.
Due to this, the government will save about 98 crore rupees every year as compared to open market tender. The government would have to spend about Rs 534 crore in a year on tendering from the open market. More money will have to be spent in buying pulses through tender in the open market. Controversy will arise in such a situation, so it has been decided to buy pulses from Nafed, a central government organization.
It is the effort of the government that the beneficiaries should start getting pulses from August – Dr. Rameshwar Oraon