18 lakh households eligible for food subsidy

Eighteen lakh households have been found eligible to get foodgrains at highly subsidized rates of Rs 2/ kg for wheat and Rs 3/ kg for rice under the Food Security Act.

New Delhi: Eighteen lakh households have been found eligible to get foodgrains at highly subsidized rates of Rs 2/ kg for wheat and Rs 3/ kg for rice under the Food Security Act.

The Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs has digitized the data of all these households and a computerized system has been put in place for allocation of foodgrains every month to these households through 2400 fair price shops in Delhi.

"The Department had received applications from 21 lakhs households under the Act. Details of the applicants were compared with the data of power connections, property ownership, Government employees and vehicle ownership to rule out ineligible households. Thereafter field verification was taken up.

"After scrutiny and field verification, out of the 21 lakhs households 18 Lakhs households have been found eligible for receiving Food Security," said Commissioner Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs SS Yadav.

He said that out of the 18 lakhs eligible households, 9 lakhs households have already started getting benefit of food security. In case of remaining 9 lakhs households, the new ration cards will be issued and benefit will be provided to them over next 2 to 3 months.

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