New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS): The Centre on Monday said it has been able to create, with the help of state governments, 69 LMT extra storage by effectively utilising the covered storage space for ensuring food security.

"The Government's vision to create adequate storage for food grains has resulted in the creation of scientific godowns and modern storage silos. Besides, the government is also creating modern storage silos in the 'Hub and Spoke model' for 108 LMT across the country," Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal said at a virtual event.

'Hub and Spoke' method is a type of logistics methodology.

He thanked FCI for its dedication & effort in food distribution to nearly 80 crore beneficiaries at an expenditure of Rs 2 lakh crore under Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), ensuring 'no poor person sleeps hungry'. Every beneficiary was given 5 kg of rice/wheat & 1 kg of pulses/ month.

During the pandemic induced lockdown, all the agencies under the Department of Food and Public Distribution, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Indian Railways transported record food grains in every nook and corner of the country, Goyal said, adding, "as much as 180.83 LMT of food grains under PMGKAY were distributed free of cost to all the needy people ever since the pandemic started over and above the food grain distributed under NFSA."

Goyal was inaugurating, virtually, a National Museum on Food Security at Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, which he said, was a first such museum in the country that will depict the efforts of all stakeholders of food security maintenance.

He also inaugurated a new building of Divisional Office at Hubballi in Karnataka.