From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Apr 6: Above Poverty Line (APL) families will be supplied foodgrians through the Public Distribution System (PDS) from June this year.

This was announced by Karnataka’s Food and Civil Supplies minister Dinesh Gundu Rao in Bengaluru on Monday.

Speaking to newsmen, the minister said that the department of civil supplies has made all arrangements to include the APL family into the PDS system, and those beneficiaries wishing to join the scheme mustregister with the concerned Food and Civil services offices.

He said that there were an estimated 26 lakh APL families in the state,

“All the families may not opt for receiving subsidised foodgrains,’’ he said pointing out that the State Government was firm on its commitment.

“We are insisting the APL families wishing to join the PDS system to register to know about the requirement of foodgrains and procure from the market,’’ he said.

Replying to questions, he said that the state government would lift the foodgrains from the Central pool, both wheat and rice, which would be priced at Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kilo respectively.

“Earlier we had to buy the foodgrains at higher prices,” he said.

The minister said the State Government was likely to get a cash benefit of about Rs 400 ro 500 crore following enforcement of the Food Security Act.

Defending the State Government’s decision to revert to the unit system for distributkon of rice at cheaper prices, he said it was done to prevent surplus foodgrains being availed by the families from entering the black market.

With the restructured PDS system, the total annul allocation on the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme had been come down to Rs 2200 crore, he added.