New Delhi, January 21
The government today decided to step up ration supplies of wheat or rice by 10 kg per eligible family during January and February to ease prices. The allocation would be over and above 35 kg of rice or wheat being supplied to each eligible family at present and is expected to cost the national exchequer around Rs 340 crore.
The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Prices chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. An official statement later said: “An ad-hoc allocation of 10 kg per family per month over and above the existing allocation of foodgrains (wheat and rice) will be made for two months, January and February, 2010, to cover all accepted cardholders.”
It will be available to accepted numbers of cardholders under AAY, BPL and APL category. The total additional allocation for the country will be 10.64 lakh tonnes rice and 25.43 lakh tonnes wheat.
