Telangana to sell fine rice on PDS cards
The government solution is to supply sanna biyyam that costs Rs 40 per kg in the market.
Hyderabad: In yet another populist scheme, the TRS government is considering supplying fine quality rice (sanna biyyam) to BPL (below poverty line) families through ration shops next year.
Sanna biyyam is being supplied in government schools and welfare hostels.
BPL families get a thicker quality of rice at Rs 1 per kg; the government purchases it at Rs 27 per kg. Most of the beneficiaries sell this rice to millers and traders because they are unable to consume it. This is a waste of thousands of crores of taxpayers’ money.
The government solution is to supply sanna biyyam that costs Rs 40 per kg in the market. This will increase the price and requires a cut in the rice quota. The government hopes that beneficiaries will not oppose this as they are getting a better quality of rice.
“Six kg of rice is supplied per head without any upper cap on the number of beneficiaries in a household. We propose to bring this down to 4 kg per head with a cap of 20 to 25 kg,” a senior official in the civil supplies department said.
He said that since beneficiaries were selling thick rice and purchasing fine rice for '50 per kg, they would not oppose paying Rs 25 per kg for sanna biyyam, which is half the market price.
Telangana to try to weed out bogus cards
An official of the civil supplies department said that there were 85.36 lakh ration cards covering 2.74 crore beneficiaries. “According to the comprehensive household survey, there are 1.05 crore households. This would mean that 85 per cent of households come under BPL category, which exposes how ration cards were secured by the ineligible.”
He said that after rules were tightened 15 per cent of bogus cards were weeded out. “But as per our information, nearly 40 lakh hold ration cards but never take ration. They inclu-de government employees and others who hold cards just for the sake of availing Arogya-sri, etc. Though we have issu-ed instructions to delink rat-ion cards from other benefits, this hasn’t come into force due to lack of coordination betwe-en various departments.”
Officials say that if these 40 lakh cards are weeded out, then it would be easier for the government to supply sanna biyyam to BPL families without incurring an extra subsidy burden. However, it would be tough to weed out such a huge number of beneficiaries in an election year.