Telangana Govt to hike Subsidy beneficiaries

Hyderabad, Mar 26: The Telangana Government has added an additional 35.22 lakh beneficiaries to the 1.91 crore people eligible for subsidized rice by raising the income limit taking the total number of beneficiaries to 2.36 crore.

According to the Central government's Food Security Act (FSA), the annual income limit for rural areas is Rs 60,000 and Rs 75,000 in urban areas as per the eligibility criteria to claim the benefit.

However, the state government has increased the limit to Rs 1.5 lakh and 2 lakh respectively.

As per the FSA guidelines, the Centre supplies rice at Rs 4.40 per kg to Telangana but the state government is providing the same to beneficiaries at just Rs 1 per kg. Also, the upper cap has been prescribed for of rice per person but the state government increased this limit to 6 kgs along with lifting the ceiling on rice quantity for each household.

Elaborating in detail, 10 members of a household are entitled for 60 kgs of rice at the rate of 6 kgs per head instead of the earlier ceiling of 20 kg per household. Thus, increasing the subsidy burden of the state government to Rs 2,744 crore this year.

Informing the Legislative Assembly on Sunday that the Centre is supplying 1.08 lakh metric tonnes of rice per month while Telangana is purchasing an additional 9 lakh metric tonnes to meet the demand, Civil Supplies Minister Etela Rajender asserted that the TRS government is committed to providing subsidised rice to the poor irrespective of the financial burden