Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday approved the supply of rice under the Re-1-a-kilo-rice scheme to all the occupants of all SC, ST, BC and minority welfare institutions in AP, including ashram schools, residential schools and VM homes.
About 8 lakh students belonging to "the poorest and poor" families, residing in 5,515 hostels, will benefit from this measure, according to the government.
The Civil Supplies department will supply a total of 92,570 MTs per annum towards the scheme. This is in addition to the
recently increased mess charges allotted to students.
The 5,515 hostels include 2,699 SC hostels with 2,30,000 students - the requirement here will be 40,648 MTs of rice per annum.
There are 1,433 BC hostels, including residential schools, with 1,65,810 students. The requirement of rice in these hostels will be 22,667 MTs.
The 1,041 ST hostels with 2,23,372 students will have a rice requirement of 3,351 MTs per annum.
342 Social welfare residential schools, with 1,66,479 students, will have a requirement of 25,904 MTs per annum.
Currently, rice is being supplied at the rate of Rs. 4 per kg. With supply priced at Re. 1 per kg, the additional subsidy to be incurred towards this will be Rs. 30 crore.
It may be recalled here that the Chief Minister had announced the policy to supply rice at Re. 1 per kg on December 2, 2012.
The Chief Minister had also enhanced mess charges to students of welfare hostels from December 9.
For students from the 3rd to the 7th standard, the charges increased from Rs. 475 to Rs. 750; for students of the 8th to the 10th standards, they increased from Rs. 535 to Rs. 850; and for students of Intermediate to PG, the hike was from Rs. 520 to Rs. 1,050.
The government has had to bear an additional burden of Rs. 271 crore for mess charges. According to officials, this benefited 8.81 lakh students, including SCs, STs, BCs, minorities and disabled children.
The government also claims that several measures have been taken to improve the functioning of the hostels in the state. A hostel management system was recently put in place, and the system monitors hostel boarders' attendance, purchases and other issues. (INN)