NAC, in its third meeting on Wednesday, has broadly agreed on the need to universalise food subsidy, though it is yet to finalise its recommendations.
One of the agreement reached is to provide distribution network to cover at least a quarter of every poor district or block in the first year. Although method of distribution is yet to be finalised. The food cover proposed is 35 kg of cereals at Rs 3/- per month per household both in rural & urban areas.
The agreement seem to be a middle ground between govt’s more cautious approach and country-wide coverage covering both BPL as well as APL as suggested by many. It was recognised that creating a country-wide application would require a massive distribution network, which at present is not available.
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