Karnataka Chief Minister K. Siddaramaiah today launched the much awaited ambitious rice scheme for below poverty line families.
Under the scheme, every BPL family will get 30 kg rice at Re one per kg every month.
Siddaramaiah kick started the programme by symbolically distributing 30 kg of rice to three BPL cardholders at a grand function here.
The government will spend Rs. 4,300 crore annually for the programme.
The scheme was to take off June 1 as announced by Siddaramaiah May 13, soon after he was sworn in.
However, it was postponed to July 1 and later to July 10 as the state government could not arrange about 100,000 tonnes of additional rice required to implement the scheme.
Karnataka produces around 4.2 million tonnes of rice, of which about 350,000 is procured for the central kitty for public distribution system (PDS).
