It's not plastic but fortified rice, asserts FCI

Tadepalli (Guntur district): Dispelling the misgivings that plastic rice was mixed with the rice being given to the poor people under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, deputy general manager of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) Ashish Tak said here on Monday that it was in fact fortified rice to help the poor people to overcome the malnutrition.

Addressing the media at the FCI regional office at Tadepalli premises, Ashish Tak said that the Central government approved supply of fortified rice to tackle malnutrition-related ailments. The distribution of fortified rice was started in 2021-22 on pilot basis. However, there have been many misgivings on the fortified rice which is rather wrongly believed by a section of people that it was plastic rice.

Elaborating on the fortified rice, assistant general manager (quality control) Manoj Kumar Singh said that rice flour is enriched with three micro-nutrients iron, folic acid and Vitamin B12 which would greatly help children and elders to overcome the problem of malnutrition as per the suggestion of National Institute of Nutrition (NIN).

He said that the fortified rice is being given free at the rate of 5 kg per person per month for the all the beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act. The FCI is instrumental in supplying fortified rice to all the beneficiaries by allocating to all States and Union Territories. The Andhra Pradesh FCI supplies fortified rice to Andaman and Nicobar Islands in addition to AP.

FCI Manager at Tadepalli premises Ragal Kiran, DGM Jayaprasad and AGM (quality control) Malik were also present at the media meet.