Cheruvayal Raman, the farmer from Wayanad who was awarded the Padma Shri, will be the first recipient of the Bhakshya Bhadratha Award instituted by the State Food Commission, Kerala, which aims to honour farmers who contribute to food security through traditional methods.
Announcing the award here on Friday, Commission Chairman K.V. Mohankumar said the commission was planning to create awareness at the grassroots level about Food Security Allowance Rules-2015 as the public is largely ignorant about it. Priority consumers who possess yellow and pink ration cards have the right to complain to the District Grievance Redressal Officer if they could not avail services from nearby ration shops owing to internal errors such as malfunction of the electronic point of sale (E-pos) machines.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister G.R. Anil will present the award at Nalanda Auditorium in Kozhikode at 11 a.m. on March 18. Thottathil Raveendran, MLA, will preside over the function, while M.K. Raghavan, MP, will be the chief guest. Mayor Beena Philip, district panchayat president Sheeja Sashi, Food and Civil Supplies Secretary Ali Asgar Pasha, and District Collector N. Tej Lohit Reddy will attend.
The award comprises a sculpture, citation, and ₹11,111 in cash. Mr. Raman is known to have preserved as many as 58 varieties of paddy seeds that used to be cultivated in Wayanad but are now on the verge of extinction.
The State Food Commission was constituted as per the National Food Security Act, 2013 and evaluates the public distribution system through ration shops, nutritional support to pregnant women and lactating mothers through Anganwadis, and nutritional support to children up to the age of 14 through the mid-day meal scheme at schools.
