Annapurna Yojana for providing wheat and iodised salt at Re 1 per kg and rice at Rs 2 per kg to Antyodaya, BPl and destitute families in Madhya Pradesh will be launched on June 1.
Former Deputy Prime Minister lal Krishna Advani will launch the scheme at Gwalior. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Ministers Narottam Mishra, Anoop Mishra, Paras Jain and Minister of State Narayan Singh Kushwaha, MPs Narendra Singh Tomar, Prabhat Jha, Smt. Yoshodhara Raje Scindia, Maya Singh and Kaptan Singh Solanki and Gwalior Mayor Sameeksha Gupta will be specially present on the occasion.
It is noteworthy that at present, wheat is being provided at the rate of Rs 2 per kg and rice Rs 3 per kg to Antyodaya families while BPl families are getting wheat at Rs 3 per kg and rice Rs 4.50 per kg in the state.
Madhya Pradesh will be the first state after Chhattisgarh to provide food grains at such special concessional rates. Half of Madhya Pradesh’s population ie 3.50 crore people will benefit from these special subsidised rates. These include 8 lakh Antyodaya and 56 lakh BPl families.
The decision of the State Government to provide food grains at special concessional rates to BPl and Antyodaya families is one step ahead of proposed Food Security Bill of the Union Government. Under the Bill, it is proposed to provide wheat at the rate of Rs 2 kg and rice Rs 3 per kg.
It is also noteworthy that Madhya Pradesh is receiving food grains from the Union Government for BPl families including wheat at the rate of Rs 5 kg and rice Rs 6.50 per kg. The State Government is already bearing expenses on transporting food grains for providing them to beneficiary families and commission of cooperative and lead societies amounting to Rs 85 crore.
The first phase of Mukhyamantri Annapurna Yojana was launched in April 2008, under which the State Government was providing additional subsidy of Rs 2 per kg on distribution of food grains to BPl families. The State Government was spending Rs 440 crore per annum on this scheme. The decision to provide iodised salt at special subsidised rate of Re 1 per kg to all BPl and Antyodaya families in the state under second phase of the scheme will entail a total burden of Rs 420 crore per annum on the state exchequer.
Besides, the State Government has also decided to retain subsidy on PDS sugar. This will entail additional burden of Rs 60 crore per annum on the state exchequer. Thus, the State Government will spend Rs 1000 per annum on public distribution system.
BPl families get iodised salt at Re 1 per kg
From June 1, 2013, BPl and Antyodaya families in all 313 development blocks in the State will be provided iodised salt at Re 1 per kg. At present, this facility is being given in only 89 tribal dominant development blocks. Objective of the decision is to provide iodised salt to all the BPl and Antyodaya families at concessional rate to ensure their health. Implementation of this important decision will entail additional annual burden of Rs 40 crore on the state exchequer, which was only
Rs 25 crore at present. Thus, the State Government will bear total annual burden of Rs 65 crore as a result of this decision.