Key Points

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy launched the scheme in Huzurnagar constituency on the occasion of Telugu New Year Ugadi on Sunday.

Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy claimed that Telangana is the first state in India to introduce such an initiative, which will ensure food security to 84 per cent population of the state.

Each member of a BPL family holding a white ration card will get six kilograms of fine rice, instead of coarse rice.

There are 89.73 lakh white ration cards covering 2.8 crore people. With 30 lakh new applications, the total beneficiaries will reach 3.10 crore.

Chief Minister said 3.10 crore people will be provided free fine-rice through ration shops. The government will be spending Rs 10,600 crore on this scheme annually.

The government felt the need to distribute fine rice through ration shops as coarse rice was falling into the hands of middlemen.

The Chief Minister claimed that Congress always strived to provide food security to the poor. He pointed out that for the first time in the country, ration shops were introduced in 1957 by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He said it was Congress leader Sonia Gandhi who brought the Right to Food Act to satiate the hunger of the poor.

Revanth Reddy claimed that it was in 1982-83, then Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, proposed to provide rice for Rs 1.90 a kg, but after the change of government, N. T. Rama Rao launched a Rs 2 a kg rice scheme.

Currently, free coarse rice is being supplied to white ration card holders, but they are not consuming it and selling it to rice millers for Rs 10 a kg. The rice millers are recycling the rice and selling it for Rs 50 a kg to earn crores.

Revanth Reddy stated that with improvement in the state's economy, the government decided to provide fine rice. Slamming the previous government of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), he said it did not think of introducing the scheme for 10 years. He said the BRS always discouraged farmers from growing paddy, but the Congress government is paying a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal of fine rice.

He pointed out that Telangana ranks number one in paddy production in the country. Last year, the state produced 1.56 lakh tonne of paddy.

The Chief Minister also examined the prestigious Indiramma Housing Project in Huzurnagar. The event was marked by the ceremonial guard of honour by police and a cultural programme.

The Chief Minister personally inspected the 2160 Indiramma Houses, a flagship project aimed at providing dignified housing for the underprivileged.

The Telangana Housing Managing Director, V.P. Gautam, briefed Revanth Reddy on the project's scope, highlighting that 135 housing blocks were developed with state-of-the-art amenities, including parks, community halls, and markets to create a self-sustaining residential space.

"For the first time in Telangana's history, such a massive Indiramma housing project is being built in a single location, ensuring a better quality of life for beneficiaries. These homes, constructed near urban centres, will eliminate hardships for the poor and become a beacon of hope for the homeless," said the Chief Minister.

- IANS