Parliament Question: Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice Scheme

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 851 TO BE ANSWERED ON 4TH FEBRUARY, 2026 BHARAT ATTA AND BHARAT RICE SCHEME f 851. SHRI RAJESH RANJAN:

Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION

be pleased to state:

(a): whether the Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice Schemes come under the administrative jurisdiction of the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DoFPD);

(b): if so, whether any Department can unilaterally transfer or relinquish its statutory and administrative responsibilities relating to allocation, distribution, monitoring and grievance redressal to another Department;

(c): if not, the reasons for referring the complaints regarding alleged diversion of wheat and rice by Kendriya Bhandar to DoFPD instead of examining and resolving them;

(d): whether DoPT has taken any concrete action on such complaints and if so, the details thereof; and

(e): the proposed corrective steps taken by the Government to ensure that the complaints relating to allocation, distribution and diversion of subsidized foodgrains are dealt with by DoFPD in accordance with the Work Allocation Rules? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIM ATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA)

(a): Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) launched Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice with the objective to provide atta (wheat flour) and rice at affordable rates to general consumers through sale by cooperative organizations. The areas of responsibility of DFPD in regard to Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice are allocation of quantities of wheat and rice to these organizations, issue of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for sale of these products.

The retail sale of Bharat Atta and Bharat rice is operationalized by central cooperative organizations, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.(NAFED), National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF) and Kendriya Bhandar under the administrative jurisdiction of Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Department of Consumer Affairs and Department of Personnel & Training, respectively.(b) and (c): As the internal logistics and process improvements of central cooperative organizations fall within the purview of the respective administrative Ministries/Departments, the Departments have been requested to review and monitor the Track-and-Trace mechanism put in place by these organisations for supply ofBharat brand products. The Departments have also been asked to undertake periodic review of supply chain management of retail sales of Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice.

(d) and (e): The complaints received in D/o Personnel and Training related to the scheme of Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice were examined based on the inputs received from Kendriya Bhandar and were also forwarded to the Vigilance Wing, headed by the Chief Vigilance Officer of Kendriya Bhandar for necessary action. Kendriya Bhandar has informed that multiple layers of audit viz.

statutory audit, concurrent audit and internal audit conducted by various agencies have not found any kind of irregularity in the implementation of the schemes by Kendriya Bhandar.

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