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Rice scheme to cover Antyodaya beneficiaries also

BHUBANESWAR: Leaders and workers of the ruling Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance are now a happy lot. They are confident that the `rice at Rs. 2 per kg scheme’ announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik would work wonders and help them win the coming polls.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to formally launch the ambitious programme at a special public function to be held at the Exhibition Grounds here on Saturday. The scheme would also be simultaneously launched in several districts by different Ministers.

As announced by the Government all the below-the-poverty-line (BPL) families in the State will be provided 25 kg rice at Rs 2 per kg per month under the programme. The scheme will also cover the families listed under the Antyodaya scheme, above poverty line (APL) families in KBK districts and Scheduled Tribe students of residential schools.

It is said that about 58.94 lakh families will be covered under the scheme and the State Government would bear an additional financial burden of around Rs. 800 crores per year from its own resources. The rice would be made available through targeted public distribution system that runs under the Food, Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department of the State Government.

The scheme was likely to backfire as the scheme would be implemented as per the BPL family list that was prepared way back in 1997, and thousands of poor families across the State were yet to be issued BPL cards.

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