Over 25.1m Chhattisgarh residents from amongst the 6.79 million ration card holding families will benefit from the free rice scheme announced by the state.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday announced it will give free rice to families in the below poverty line (BPL) category from July to November to help mitigate the economic impact of the second wave of Covid-19 on the poor. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced free food grains to around 800 million citizens till November under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
Over 25.1m Chhattisgarh residents from 6.79 m ration card holding families will benefit from the scheme announced by the state, a government press release said on Tuesday.
The release added that the Chhattisgarh government had distributed rice free of cost to the poor and needy families under the public distribution system (PDS) scheme in the months of May and June as well.
“As per the announcement of chief minister Baghel, BPL families will now be provided rice free of cost from the month of July to the month of November this year. This decision would greatly benefit ration card holders of ‘antyodaya’, ‘priority’, ‘annapoorna’, ‘destitute’, ‘disable’ categories. Moreover, all the beneficiaries of the State Food Security Act would be provided rice in quantity equivalent to the Prime Minister Poor Welfare Scheme,” the release added.
Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, which governs the public distribution system (PDS), the ration card households are divided into three categories — priority households (PR), priority state households (PRS), and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) families. The beneficiaries under the PR and PRS categories are entitled to 5 kgs of food grains per month while AAY households receive 25 kgs wheat, 10 kgs rice and 1 kg sugar.
