Ration to non-priority households to be announced

The Department of Food and Civil Supplies is keen on offering ration to non-priority households. An announcement to this effect is likely in the budget to be presented on Friday.

At present, only priority households are eligible for the highly subsidised ration on a monthly basis. Till recently, the ration cards were categorised as BPL and APL. But the new Food Security Act has done away these two categories and introduced priority and non-priority household categories.

There has been an intense pressure on the Siddaramaiah government to issue subsidised ration to those who are in non-priority (earlier APL) category. Sources in the government said a good number of bogus beneficiaries have been identified and weeded out. This has enabled the department to offer ration to non-priority households too.

However, ration would not be as cheap as that is being issued to priority households.
About 10 kg of rice, five or 10 kg of wheat, a kg of sugar and a litre of palm oil may be sold to non-priority households. A kg of rice would be anywhere between Rs 12 and Rs 15, sources said.

The subsidy outlay for the Food and Civil Supplies department, by and large, would not see an increase for the next year. The Centre has identified nearly 30 lakh families those who are poor and deserve highly subsidised foodgrain. But the State has been giving ration to not less than a lakh families.

In the last one year, undeserving families have been weeded out to a certain extent. This has helped the department to offer ration to non-priority families too, the sources said.

There were speculations that the government may reintroduce selling of highly subsidised sarees and dhotis through PDS shops. However, sources said no such decision has been taken.

Other speculations that were making rounds were - distributing a pair of free shoes to government schoolchildren, besides textbooks and uniforms.