Karimnagar: Free rice distribution through PDS shops launched

Karimnagar: Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar has formally launched the distribution of 15 kilograms of free rice to the ration card holders at Kothapalli in the district on Saturday.

He thanked the Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for providing 15 kg free rice in addition to the monthly quota of PDS rice to the ration card holders to feed the poor affected by the lockdown imposed in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

He informed that each person would be provided 15 kg rice in addition to 6 kg rice being provided for ration card holders every month. Through the 17,000 ration shops in the State around 53.56 lakh national food security card holders would be supplied 10 kg rice provided by the Central government for the months of May and June.

Five kilograms of rice would also be supplied by the State government in addition to that. About 2.80 crore people would be supplied 4.31 lakh metric tonnes of rice during the months of June and July.

They include 33.85 lakh card holders who were not covered by Central schemes. The government has allocated an additional amount of Rs 92 crore for the purpose of distributing the rice to the poor families.

The distribution of free rice would be continued till June 20, he said. District Collector K Shashanka, Civil Supplies department officials and elected members were present.