Bhubaneswar: Ration card holders in Odisha will get wheat along with rice from October month of this year. The Central Government has written a letter in this regard to nine states, including Odisha.

As per the letter, a committee of ministers has decided to revise the wheat-rice ratio and increase the allocation of wheat by 35 LMT. Accordingly, the allocation of rice and wheat under NFSA/ PMGKAY has been revised in 9 states-- Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

The letter further said that there will be no change in cost-sharing on account of such distribution including food subsidy, intra-state transportation and dealer’s margin.

Earlier, the Odisha government had placed a demand before the Centre to provide wheat against 20% of the rice quota to beneficiaries under food security schemes in Odisha.

The previous BJD government had discontinued the supply of wheat to the beneficiaries after requesting the Centre for additional rice under the central and state food security programmes.