Food & Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Mr Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Wednesday announced that the distribution of food grains amongst beneficiaries would be started from January 5, 2021 under the State Sponsored Smart Ration Card Scheme of Punjab Government.This was stated by the Minister while presiding over the meeting of Sub Committee constituted by the Chief Minister. The members of Sub Committee Cabinet Ministr Sh. Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Smt Aruna Chaudhary, Sh. Sunder Sham Arora besides MLAs Kuljit Singh Nagra, Madan Lal Jalalpur, Pritam Singh Kotbhai, Davinder Singh Ghubaya were present in the meeting. Principal Secretary Food & Civil Supplies Sh. K.A.P. Sinha, Special Principal Secretary to CM Sh. Gurkirat Kirpal Singh and Director Food and Civil Supplies Smt. Anindita Mitra also attended the meeting.Addressing the meeting Mr. Ashu said that under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana 1.41 crore needy people were being provided ration by the State Government despite that some beneficiaries were bereft of taking advantage of this scheme. In view of this, the Minister said, the Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh directed to start this State Sponsored Scheme so as to provide ration to each and every needy person. Under this scheme 9,48,801 members of about 2,37,200 families won the state will be provided food grains and the entire expenditure of this would be borne by the Punjab Government.The Minister informed that as many as 92.35 per cent beneficiaries of the state had been provided food grains under the Prime Minister's Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. On this occasion the members of the sub committee also took stock of the progress of Smart Ration Card Scheme.