Subsidised Rice Distribution List of destitute families yet to be finalised

The government is yet to complete the list of 12.5 lakh families it wants to help with subsidised rice until June amid the coronavirus crisis that has impacted both the health sector and the economy.

It has been nearly two weeks since the government suspended its rice open market sale at Tk 10 per kilogram saying that the sale would resume once a complete list of families in need was prepared.

The government felt the need for issuing a ration card for each family to be benefitted by the sale of the subsidised rice amid widespread reports of misappropriation and theft of the allocated rice by government rice dealers.

‘It would take a while to complete the list,’ Nazmanara Khanum told New Age.

‘It would be implemented gradually and local authorities will start selling rice right away after the list for a certain area is ready,’ she said.

Nazmanara said that district and divisional offices were preparing the lists but their work was not centrally coordinated.

In April, she said, over 3,700 tonnes of rice was sold after ration cards were introduced.

She said that a selected family can buy a maximum of 20 kg rice a month and the monthly sale would be 25,000 tonnes.

On Sunday, the Dhaka rationing office sold 6.6 tonnes subsidised rice to 666 families in two wards in areas under Dhaka North City Corporation.

Dhaka Rationing chief controller Utpal Kumer Saha said that every month 333 families in each ward of Dhaka North City Corporation would get the subsidised rice while 288 families of each ward of Dhaka South City Corporation would receive the rations.

‘We have decided on the number of beneficiaries based on the allocation we have, though we do not have the complete list of the beneficiary families yet,’ said Utpal.

The Dhaka rationing office will sell 792 tonnes subsidised rice to 39,600 families in 129 wards in areas of the two Dhaka city corporations every month, he said.

Under the suspended rice OMS the government had planned to help 43,200 families a month with 20 kg of rice in Dhaka but could never fully implement the plan.

The rice OMS was suspended merely a week into its launch on April 6, 10 days after the coronavirus crisis compelled the government to enforce a countrywide lockdown on March 26.

The number of people the government had tried to reach with its rice OMS was only a fourth of its estimated low-income people living in 73 slums in Dhaka.

Unofficial estimate put the number of people working in informal sector around 40 lakhs in Dhaka alone.

Many of them left Dhaka after the lockdown was imposed but many did not have a village home to go back to.

The government is also running another program, Khaddo Bandhob Karmasuchi, under which 50 lakh rural families would receive 30 kg subsidised rice at Tk 10 per kilogram a month for five months, including March and April.

The food secretary said that the Khaddo Bandhob Karmasuchi would continue through May because of the coronavirus crisis.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net