New ration cards for all families

BHUBANESWAR: Minister for Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Niranjan Pujari on Saturday announced in the Assembly that new ration cards would be provided to all families in the State. To a question from Ramesh Chandra Chau Patnaik (BJD), the Minister said the new ration cards would be given based on a survey of the National Population Register prepared at the time of Census 2011. The survey will be conducted by Panchayati Raj Department in the rural areas and Urban and Housing Development Department in the urban areas, he said.  The Minister said there was no provision now to provide essential commodities to persons without ration cards. Kerosene is being provided to some families without ration cards through ‘haat’ and ‘chhak’ sales, he said. Pujari said the Centre is contemplating to introduce a scheme to directly deposit the subsidy amount in the passbooks of beneficiaries. The scheme is likely to be launched in March, 2012, he said. To a query from Debasis Nayak, the Minister said the State Government had made a budget provision of Rs. 976.5 crore subsidy for the implementation of the Rs. 2-a-kg rice scheme in 2011-12. He said while the State Government provided subsidy of Rs. 924.44 crore in 2010-11 to Orissa State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC), the Centre provided Rs. 2,194.59-crore subsidy for implementation of different welfare schemes. The Minister said besides rice purchased from the Food Corporation of India (FCI), rice procured by the State Government is also utilised for implementation of different welfare schemes. The price of rice procured by the State Government during 2010-11 kharif is Rs. 1,987.42 per quintal, he said and added BPL rice is  purchased from FCI at Rs. 565 a quintal. Similarly, rice for Antadayo Anna Yojana (AAY) is purchased at Rs. 300 a quintal, he said. The Centre provides a subsidy of Rs. 1,422.42 a quintal of BPL rice and Rs. 1,687.42 a quintal of AAY rice, he said. There is no subsidy for rice purchased from the FCI. The State Government provides a subsidy of  Rs. 443.3 and Rs. 171.2 for BPL rice and AAY rice respectively, he said.