New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday said her government has finalised all the nitty gritties to implement the ambitious food security scheme with an aim to make the city "hunger-free".
The scheme will be rolled out on August 20, the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi. She said Delhi will be the first state in the country to launch the scheme.
Though the scheme will be launched on August 20, the beneficiaries will start getting entitled food grains from September 1.
"We are committed to implement the scheme in true spirit. Through the scheme, we will make Delhi hunger free," Dikshit said addressing a press conference which was attended by all her cabinet colleagues.
Considering the potential of the populist measure in the Assembly elections slated for November in the city, Dikshit had earlier this month announced that Delhi will be the first state in the country to launch the scheme, dubbed a 'game changer' by Congress for the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Dikshit said government will provide benefits under the scheme to 73.5 lakh people in the city out of the total population of 1.68 crore.
In the first phase, all BPL families, Above Poverty Line (APL) card holders and Jhughi Ration Card (JRC) holders and beneficiaries under Antodaya Anna Yojna (AAY) will be included.
The city government has also decided to include homeless people, daily wage-earners, rag-pickers, people living in resettlement colonies and slum clusters in the first phase of implementation of the scheme.
No income tax payers, vehicle and house owners will be included under the scheme in the first phase, officials said, adding the second and final phase of implementation of the scheme will be launched in February next year.
They said the beneficiaries of Annashree Yojna, who are getting a monthly cash subsidy of Rs 600, will not be brought under it.
Under the scheme, three-fourth population of the country will have the right to get 5kg foodgrains every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg.
The per kg price of rice will be Rs 3 while wheat and coarse cereals will be given at Rs 2 and Rs 1 per kg, respectively, under the programme.
However, about 2.43 crore of the poorest of the poor families covered under AAY scheme under PDS would continue to get 35kg of foodgrains per family per month but with legal entitlement.
The Food Security programme will be the biggest in the world with the government spending estimated at Rs 1,25,000 crore annually on supply of about 62 million tonnes of rice, wheat and coarse cereals to 67 per cent of the population.
The Delhi government had launched Annashree Yojna, a major food security programme, in December last year, under which a monthly cash subsidy of Rs 600 is being transferred directly into Aadhaar-linked bank account of the senior-most woman member of around one lakh poor families.
