By IANS,
Ranchi : In a major move to provide food cheaply to its high number of poor people, the Jharkhand government Wednesday announced subsidised lunch at Rs.5 and salt at 50 paise a kg to the poor.
Jharkhand Food and Supplies Minister Mathura Mahto said the Rs.5 subsidised lunch scheme for the poor would be launched from Aug 15.
“The subsidized lunch at Rs.5 will be started from Independence day in all the 24 districts of the state. A total 100 food centres will be opened to provide subsidised lunch,” Mahto told reporters here.
Under the subsidised lunch scheme, the state will provide 200 grams of rice and pulses. The food centres will be run through NGOs and the state government will monitor the scheme.
Mahto said that subsidised salt at 50 paise per kg will be sold to BPL families from the current month.
“Tenders have been floated inviting parties to supply iodised salt,” said the minister. The state cabinet Tuesday cleared the proposal of subsidised salt at 50 paise to 35 lakh BPL families. The state government has launched the scheme of subsidised salt to poor families to check the spread of diseases due to deficiency of iodine.
The minister also announced that ration cards will be distributed from September. “We have received 65 lakh applications for ration cards and the process to distribute ration cards will begin from September,” the minister said.
More than half of Jharkhand’s three crore population comes under the Below Poverty Level bracket.