HYDERABAD: Finance minister Etela Rajender assured the members of the state Assembly that the state government would issue white ration cards along with food security cards to all eligible families who had applied for the same.
The minister assured the House that a separate meeting with members would be called after March 30 on issuing of ration cards to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. Replying to a question during the Question Hour on Saturday, the finance minister said the total number of applications received were 1,01,37,897 across the state of which 90,15,729 applications were found to be valid after scrutiny and verification. He said the state government has raised the ceiling for ration cards from `60,000 to 1.50 lakh in rural reas while it is raised from `75,000 to `2 lakh in urban areas.
He further informed the House that Central government was supplying rice at `3 per kg to 1.91 crore population while the State government has further subsidised it and giving at Re 1 per kg to 2.21 crore (which means additional 30 lakh population) at 6 kg per head. Apart from this the Central government plans to provide 8,000 metric tonnes of wheat, while the state requested the Centre to give rice instead of wheat.
The minister said that all eligible families would get BPL cards. MIM wanted to know how many people have applied for fresh ration cards and when they would be issued.