The Government had to cough up more than Rs 1,200 crore towards providing Rs 1,000 one-time assistance to all ration card holders and jute carry bags free of cost as the previous BJD-led government had doled out a tsunami of freebies apparently to woo voters.
(Photo: IANS)
The Government had to cough up more than Rs 1,200 crore towards providing Rs 1,000 one-time assistance to all ration card holders and jute carry bags free of cost as the previous BJD-led government had doled out a tsunami of freebies apparently to woo voters.
The Government had to spend Rs 1206 crore from the State exchequer for the free distribution of jute carry bags and Rs 1,000 one-time assistance to public distribution system cardholders before the 2024 twin polls, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra informed the Assembly on Wednesday.
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The previous Naveen Patnaik-led government spent Rs 247.36 crore for around 2 crore jute shopping bags for distribution to around 96 lakh PDS cardholders.
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Besides jute carry bags, the government also provided Rs 1,000 one-time assistance to each of the PDS family which resulted in additional expenditure of Rs 959.5 crore, the minister, Patra told the House.
The previous government had provided two jute bags of 20 kg and 10 kg capacity to each of the PDS families for fetching different items for consumption, free of cost.
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