Karunanidhi to launch "Re a kg rice scheme" on Sep 15

Chennai, Sep 8 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi would launch the ''Re a kg rice scheme'' here on September 15, marking the birth centenary of DMK founder and former Chief Minister C N Annadurai, popularly called ''Anna''.

Mr Karunanidhi would launch in R K Nagar assembly constituency, the which (Re a measure of rice scheme) Anna had promised in the run upto the 1967 assembly elections, but could not implement it on coming to power for the first time because of some practical difficulties.

On September 16, the scheme would be launched in other 13 assembly constituencies in the city and other parts of the state by Central and state Ministers, an official release here said.

Senior Ministers K Anbazhagan, Aroct N Veerasamy and M K Stalin would launch the scheme in Harbour, Anna Nagar and Thousand Lights assembly constituencies, respectively, the release said.

Union Ministers T R Baalu, A Raja, S Ragupathy, S S Palanimanickam, Venkatapathy and Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan would launch the scheme in Saidapet, Perambalur, Nagapattinam, Pudukottai, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri, respectively.

The government, which was already supplying rice at Rs two per kg in fair price shops, decided to provide rice at Re one per kg, after the district secretaries of the ruling DMK, adopted a resolution to this effect, last week.

A total of 1.86 crore card holders would benefit from the new scheme, which would cost the exchequer an additional Rs 400 crore annually. The government was already incurring a subsidy of Rs 1950 crore on food items, including rice supplied in fair price shops.

After coming to power in May 2006, the DMK government, as promised in its election manifesto, had slashed the price of rice from Rs 3.50 per kg to Rs two per kg. It was supplying 20 kg of the subsidised rice to eligible card holders in the state.

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