The State Government has started distribution of 10 kg rice per person free of cost to eligible cardholders under the public distribution system from on Thursday.
Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar said there were 90.01 lakh cards covering 2.83 crore beneficiaries in the State. Of these, the Centre was providing 1.91 crore units covered under 54.37 lakh cards. The State Government had decided to provide additional five kg rice to these families covered under the PMGKAY scheme and cover the remaining 91.72 lakh beneficiaries covered under 35.64 lakh cards bearing the entire additional expenditure incurred on this count by itself.
He recalled that the Centre had extended the PMGKAY scheme by three months from October to December and said the Government would procure 19,057 lakh metric tonnes of rice for catering to the needs of the cardholders. In the process, it would incur additional expenditure of ₹227.25 crore at ₹ 75.75 crore a month for the next three months.
The State Government had spent ₹1,308 crore for providing additional rice ever since the PMGKAY started more than two years ago. This was in addition to ₹ 2,454 crore spent on account of providing ₹500 each to migrant labour at ₹1,500 a card for two months.
