Opposition stages walkout in J&K Assembly over subsidized food grain issue

Jammu: Opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir assembly created a furore on Monday over the subsidised foodgrains issue. Opposition parties, including the People`s Democratic Party (PDP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Panthers Party (NPP), walked out of the state assembly amid noisy scenes. Members demanded that the Omar Abdullah led state government should provide sufficient quantity of food grains that too at subsidised rates. "During last five years, even after consistent demands, the provincial government has failed to give subsidised food grains to people. The quantity of food grains provided to people is also less. It is being provided keeping almost 12-year-old old census in mind. A man, who has just got married and has kids, is not eligible for subsidised food grains while his old father has been provided with the same," said PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti. "The places which are far-away and for tribal areas, there is no provision for supplying food grains and people have to walk nearly 10 kilometres to get food grains. There are no proper godowns where we can store grains in case of emergencies," she added. Reportedly, as per Census 2011, the total population of province is 125.48 lakh which work out to be 22.73 lakh families. There is shortage of ration for approximately 3.02 lakh families in the state as there were 19.71 lakh families in the state as per 2001 Census. As per local media reports, Jammu and Kashmir`s annual foodgrain production has remained around 19 lakh metric tonne while the demand had crossed 26 lakh metric tonne. The crop yield in the province did not grow significantly for the past 50 years and per-hectare yield continued to be low when compared to all India level.