JOIN USKerosene for urban BPL families from this month
The State government has decided to distribute three litres of kerosene per month to those BPL card holders without LPG connections, living in urban areas, said Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Dinesh Gundu Rao, here on Monday.
The scheme aimed at urban poor will be introduced from this month.
Speaking at a press meet, he said that two litre kerosene will be distributed to APL families without LPG in rural areas, while the allotment for BPL families without LPG has been reduced by a litre, to four litres every month. He attributed the reduction to the policies of the Central government, which has cut down the allotment of kerosene by seven per cent during the year.
Support price He alleged that the Centre was pursuing anti-farmer policies, which had also forced State governments from extending facilities to farmers. Last year, Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 1,700 per quintal was offered by the State to farmers.
This year however, the State was forced to offer only Rs 1,360, which was stipulated by the Centre.
“The Centre, while stipulating the amount has also instructed State governments against increasing MSP at State level. To make matters worse, Food Corporation of India has also refused to take part in procurement, if the State offers more than the MSP of the Centre,” he said, adding that similar restrictions had affected the procurement of maize and other food crops in the State.
Procurement centersHe said that eight procurement centres had been opened in the district at taluk levels, of which two had been opened in T Narsipur taluk. “Instructions have been issued to the district administration to increase the number of procurement centres to 15. Preparations are being made for the same,” he said.
He said that a warehouse will come up in Hunsur in the district at a cost of Rs 1.12 crore. When completed, it would have a storage capacity of 1,250 tonnes.He said that there were a total of 1.03 crore BPL and Anthyodaya cards in the State, of which 8.37 lakh cards were cancelled in a drive by the department during the past few months. During the same period, 13.64 lakh new cards have been issued and an additional two lakh cards are ready to be distributed, he said.
In Mandya
Rao, who was in Mandya earlier in the day, said that 10 more new procurement centres would be opened, adding to the existing nine procurement centres of paddy, ragi and maize, in the district.
Addressing the media after inspecting a few procurement centres in the district, he said each quintal of paddy would be purchased at Rs 1,360, ragi at Rs 2,000 and maize at Rs 1,100.
From the current year, paddy will not be collected in the form of levy. The ration card holders will be distributed rice from the paddy that has been purchased on support price, and the mill owners themselves will have to take up hulling for which they would be paid Rs 45 per quintal, Rao said.
Ration cards
The department has received 1.10 lakh applications and cards have been distributed to 58,856 families. About 16,000 cards would be distributed in the next two months, he added.
MP C S Puttaraju said the support price should be raised to Rs 1,600 per quintal for paddy. MLA K S Puttannaiah, Rameshbabu Bandisiddegowda, DC Ajay Nagabushan, ZP CEO Rohini Sindhuri and others were present.