The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA, has approved an additional allocation of five million tonnes of foodgrains to families below the poverty line, BPL. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister in New Delhi on Thursday evening.

The extra foodgrain allocation would be adjusted in states where the new Food Security programme will be implemented. Delhi, Uttarkhand and Haryana have announced implementation of the new food law, which aims to provide legal right over subsidised foodgrains.

Earlier, this year a similar allocation of 50 lakh tonne of foodgrains to States and UTs was approved. For APL families, the government had in May allocated 6 million tonnes of extra foodgrains for this fiscal.

AIR correspondent reports, the government has excess stocks of foodgrains. As of September 1st, foodgrains stocks in the government godowns was around 59 million tonnes, which include 38.3 milion tonnes of wheat and 20.5 million tonnes of rice.