The state government’s prestigious Rs 2 per kilo rice scheme for the poor is in doldrums with the Centre refusing to provide the required quantity of rice and offering wheat instead.
The government will now have to spend at least Rs 200 crore till March 2010 to buy rice from the open market to make up for the shortfall and maintain status quo. It will have to spend another Rs 2,000 crore to fulfil the election promise made by the late chief minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, to give additional rice for the poor. The present allotment is 20 kilos per family and the promised additional allotment is another 10 kilos.
With the situation turning grim, the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, has decided to take up the issue in the Cabinet meeting slated for Thursday. The civil supplies department has been asked to give a presentation to the Cabinet explaining the difficulties involved in implementing the scheme. The Centre has so far been giving about 40,000 metric tonnes of rice every month at Rs 8.40 per kilo which the government is giving to the poor at Rs 2 per kilo.
Though the allotment is made for above poverty line families, the state makes use of it for its Rs 2 per kilo rice scheme. The Centre, however, cut allotment of rice under APL category from October onwards. It instead offered 35,000 tonnes of wheat and 18,000 tonnes of rice.
“Wheat is of no use to us because ours is primarily a rice consuming state,” said a senior official. “We will be forced to buy the deficit rice at Rs 14 per kilo.”
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