Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced to provide 5 kg rice free of cost to State Food Security Scheme (SFSS) beneficiaries for another five year from January, 2024 to December 2028.
According to official sources, the State Government will provide 5-kg entitlement of rice to 9,97,055 people from 3,14,923 families free of cost for a period of 5 years from the next month. The State will bear additional Rs 1,250 crore from its own resources in five years at the rate of Rs 250 crore per year for this purpose.
The State Government has been distributing 5 kgs of rice per person per month to the left-out eligible beneficiaries covered under the State Scheme at Re. 1 per kg since October 2018. Now it will be free of cost, the sources said.
The Chief Minister has given strict instructions to ensure that no poor person in the state is deprived of food security. The state government had launched its own SFSS after many families were left out of the NFSA, an official said.
Notably, the BJD Government had launched the Rs 2 per kg rice scheme under the Public Distribution System (PDS) ahead of the Assembly and general elections in 2009.
The Naveen Patnaik Government again launched the one-rupee rice scheme in 2013. This scheme has been treated as a game changer scheme for the BJD Government till now. Through this scheme, BJD has reached to the heart of all poor people in Odisha.
