HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government is all set to rename another welfare scheme, launched by previous Congress government, after TDP founder NT Rama Rao.
The latest one to join the list of ‘renamed and altered’ welfare schemes is Amma Hastham (mother’s hand), which provides a monthly basket of nine essential commodities to below poverty line people at cheaper prices.Continuing its act of replacing the name of former prime ministers and Congress icons Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi with that of NTR in the government welfare schemes that were either renamed or introduced by the previous Congress governments, the AP government has decided to change the form and name of Amma Hastham, named after Indira Gandhi.
The then Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy launched ‘Amma Hastham’ scheme on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year’s day in 2013. Under the scheme, white card holders in AP were being provided with nine essential commodities in a package for just `185 every month.
At present, 1 kg toor dal, 1 litre palm oil, 1 kg whole meal atta, 1 kg wheat, half kg sugar, 1 kg salt, quarter kg chilli powder, half kg tamarind and 100 gram turmeric powder are being supplied to each beneficiary in this package.
Civil Supplies minister Paritala Sunitha is of the view that though the scheme is useful for white ration card holders, essential commodities being supplied in the Amma Hastham scheme are of inferior quality. “Hence, we are planning to revamp the scheme by adding a few more essential commodities and remove some items for which there are no takers,” she said.
According to her, during her field visits and surprise checks across the State, she found that of the nine items being supplied under the Amma Hastham, tamarind, turmeric and chilli powder had no takers as people generally kept sufficient stocks of these items at home.