New norms for Rs 1 a kg rice scheme soon

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OST Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 3

With the Food Security Act all set to come into effect soon, the Odisha government has decide to set new benchmarks for selection of beneficiaries for its flagship Rs 1-a-kg rice scheme.

Under the new benchmark, government employees, income tax payers, families owning two and four-wheelers, public enterprise and corporate staff and senior officials of private companies would be excluded from the beneficiary list. This apart, families consuming electricity beyond a certain limit would also be kept out of the list.

With these new norms, the selection of new beneficiaries will be made as per the guidelines of the National Population Register (NPR).

Official sources said nearly 55 lakh families in the state are being provided rice at Rs 1 a kg. Ths list stands to get drastically curtailed with the ongoing BPL and APL schemes set to be abolished with the implementation of the new Act.

Since the state government is firm on continuing with the scheme, it has decided to prepare a new list of beneficiaries as per the NPR statistics prepared by the Union home ministry in 2011. Despite repeated requests by the state government to submit a detailed list of the beneficiaries since 2012, the Centre has so far provided only the list for Khordha district and that too last month, an official said.

After receiving the list, the Food and Civil Supplies department would start the process of selection of new beneficiaries as per the new guidelines.

It has been decided that the state government would take Bhubaneswar as a pilot project and attach any one block of Khordha district with it.

The government will float a tender later this month to select an organisation that will take up the project work, most likely from November.

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