Chandigarh, August 1 (IANS): The Punjab government will soon double the number of beneficiaries under its atta-dal (wheat flour-pulses) scheme from 15 lakh to 30 lakh, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said Thursday.

Addressing a gathering after administering oath to newly-elected panches and sarpaches in Amritsar, about 230 km from here, Badal said the step would bring more poor people within the ambit of the scheme providing subsidised food grains.

"This decision has been taken for facilitating more and more number of people to get subsidised food grains," he said.

"Even in future, the state government would provide wheat flour and pulses to beneficiaries at much cheaper rates than the existing Rs.4 per kg for wheat flour and Rs.20 per kg for pulses," the chief minister added.

"The sole aim of extending this scheme is to ensure that not a single person should starve in the state."

The Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Punjab had introduced the atta-dal scheme in 2007.

Badal has been claiming that the food security ordinance of the central government was a copy of Punjab's Atta-Dal scheme.