AP: Subsidies for BPL families in the offing

HYDERABAD: The Kiran Kumar Reddy government which faced severe criticism from people as well as the opposition parties for launching the Rs1/kg subsidised rice scheme, is likely to come up with a novel system of supplying a package of essential commodities to BPL families. It is also planning to set up super bazaars in the state to sell essential commodities to all people at affordable prices.The government has constituted a Group of Ministers comprising N Raghuveera Reddy (revenue), Botcha Satyanarayana (transport), M Mukesh Goud (marketing) and D Sridhar Babu (civil supplies) to look into the matter. Even ministers like DL Ravindra Reddy and P Shankar Rao felt that the `1akg rice scheme launched by the government was of no use for the poor people when prices of all other essential commodities are skyrocketing.Civil supplies minister Sridhar Babu has already directed the senior officials of his department, including civil supplies commissioner Harpreet Singh, to study the 'super bazaar' concept which is being implemented in Karnataka and Kerala to supply essential commodities to people at affordable prices. As part of the market intervention by the government, it is contemplating setting up super bazaars. The new initiative intends to benefit all sections of people even if they do not have ration cards.For the existing BPL (Below Poverty Line) card holders, it proposes to introduce the package system where rice, toor dal, tamarind, salt, chilli powder and edible oil will be provided at subsidised prices through the Public Distribution System.The officials have also been asked to look into the goods which need to be included in the package. The chief minister will take a final decision on the essential goods to be supplied under the package system. A special cell has also been set up to monitor the prices of essential commodities at different markets across the state. According to the civil supplies officials, the proposed package system will benefit all the BPL card holders. All sections of society will get benefited from super bazaars.At present, the BPL white card holders are getting rice at Rs 1akg (20 kg), toor dal at Rs 25akg (half a kg), palmolein at Rs 40 per litre, wheat at Rs 7akg (10 kg) and kerosene at Rs 15 per litre. The government plans to include tamarind, salt, chilli powder and other goods in the package.For pink ration card holders, no foodgrains will be supplied through the public distribution system. There are as many as 2.25 crore white card and 30 lakh pink card holders in the state.