Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh has announced to give free rice through fair price shops to 67.92 lakh eligible ration card holders of Antodaya Anna Yojana from January 2024, under PM Narendra Modi’s guarantee. Taking a big decision in the interest of the poor in Chhattisgarh, chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Tuesday announced that orders have been issued to all district collectors by the food and civil supplies department. According to a statement by the department of public relations, the beneficiaries will be coming from priority, differently-abled and destitute people’s category.

RAIPUR: Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh has announced to give free rice through fair price shops to 67.92 lakh eligible ration card holders of Antodaya Anna Yojana from January 2024, under PM Narendra Modi’s guarantee. Taking a big decision in the interest of the poor in Chhattisgarh, chief minister Vishnu Deo Sal on Tuesday announced that orders have been issued to all district collectors by the food and civil supplies department.

According to a statement by the department of public relations, the beneficiaries will be coming from priority, differently-abled and destitute people’s category.

“Following the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Antodaya scheme of distributing free rice monthly with a priority group carrying ration cards under National Food Security Act, Sai government has decided to implement the scheme for the next five years from January 2024 to December 2028 under Chhattisgarh Food and Nutrition Security Act. Instructions have been given to distribute free rice to ration card holders of priority, disabled, single-destitute category,” the official statement said.

Officials in food department said that there were more than 14.92 lakh ration card holders in Antyodaya category, 52.46 lakh were priority category, 37,708 from single- destitute category and 15,351 disabled category ration card holders. They will all be eligible as beneficiaries for the scheme of free rice, from January 2024.

A letter has been issued in this regard by the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department for making arrangements for the distribution programme.

Published Date: December 26, 2023