VIJAYAWADA: After missing several deadlines, the Civil Supplies department is gearing up to supply quality rice at the doorstep of 1.5 crore white ration card holders from February 1.
As many as 9,257 vehicles have been procured by the department and it will flag off three vehicles in Vijayawada on January 20.
The remaining will be flagged off by the ministers and MLAs on February 1. The people from SC, ST, BC, Minorities and economically backward from upper castes were hired as drivers.
Civil Supplies Commissioner Kona Sasidhar on Thursday said that the door delivery of quality rice to the white ration card holders was launched as a pilot project in Srikakulam district in September 2019.
Buoyed by the response from the beneficiaries, the department has decided to implement the scheme in a full-fledged manner in the remaining districts.
Initially, the department has planned to launch the supply quality rice at people’s doorstep from January 1. However, due to various reasons, the launch date was postponed to February 1. It is estimated that 2.5 lakh metric tonnes of quality rice will be required every month, he said.
Elaborating further, he said that the sealed rice bag would be opened right in front of the beneficiary and the specified quota of rice will be delivered to the beneficiary in separate bags. He said that all the rice bags would be transported from the godowns with bar coded mechanism to prevent tampering and adulteration.
During the recent Spandana meeting, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had directed the department to speed up the procedure, he noted.
“We will also display the bags in which the quality rice will be packed and distributed for the beneficiaries on January 20 at a programme scheduled on January 20,” Kona Sasidhar explained.