A 21-day lockdown has been imposed to prevent corona infection in the country. But even in difficult times of nationwide lockdown, some states want their choice, which they have also requested. It is interesting that the northern states which have demanded premium pulses have never distributed pulses on the Public Distribution System (PDS). Such states have always been upset over sharing of pulses. In this too, many states have kept demands for ready pulses instead of taking whole pulses.

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It is a matter of relief after the matter came to light that the central government agency NAFED godowns have a buffer stock of about 32 lakh tonnes of pulses, which is much more than the requirement. In order to provide relief to consumers from lockdown, the Central Government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, in which provision has been made to provide wheat, rice and pulses.

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There is enough stock of cereals and pulses, which will be useful for sharing. Regarding the needs of the PDS, the Center along with the states last week conducted video conferencing with the Chief Secretaries of all the states, asking about their need for pulses. According to sources, during this time, the governments of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, where there is a tradition of eating gram dal, asked the Center to replace it with moong and urad dal called the premium. Usually, when needed from the buffer stock of pulses, the southern states lifted the pulses from time to time, but the northern states kept avoiding it considering it as a matter of concern.

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