The Civil Supplies Department is gearing up to begin distribution of 12 kg rice each to members of the 87.5 lakh families of white ration cardholders across the State free of cost for the second consecutive month.
The government had decided to supply one kg of red gram to white ration cardholders during the month. To being with, red gram would be supplied in four districts — Nizamabad, Nalgonda, Warangal Rural and Medak — as the National Cooperative Agriculture Marketing Federation (Nafed) was yet to supply the assured quantum of red gram. Of the 8,754 MT of red gram assured, the State had received about 3,233 MT so far and supply of the commodity to other districts would commence once the assured quantity of red gram is received.
For the second consecutive month, cardholders would be receiving the benefit from the government in line with the assurance given by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to provide relief to below poverty line families which are affected by the ongoing lockdown. In addition to rice, the government had credited ₹1,500 each into the accounts of majority of cardholders while deposition into some accounts was hit by technical glitches. The government had released ₹2,417 crore — ₹1,103 crore for 3.3 lakh metric tonne of rice and ₹1,314 crore towards the cash component — last month.
The government, according to officials, would also commence crediting cash into the accounts of the cardholders in a couple of days as May 1 happens to be a holiday. The government has asked the fair price shop dealers to ensure sanitisers and soaps at the shops while cardholders had been asked to maintain social distancing norms.
