Food security prog: Delhi to cover 5 lakh people in phase-I

Over five lakh families in Delhi will be provided food grains initially under the ambitious food security programme which will be launched here on August 20, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who has already announced that Delhi will be the first city to roll out the scheme, today held lengthy meeting with top brass of her government to finalise modalities to select the beneficiaries.
Top officials, who attended the meeting, said the scheme will be implemented in two phases and in the first phase a total of 5.21 lakh families will be provided food grains.

In the first phase, all the BPL families, Above Poverty Line (APL) ration card holders and beneficiaries under Antodaya Anna Yojna will be included.
The city government has also decided to include homeless people, daily wage earners, rag pickers, people living in resettlement colonies and slum clusters in the first phase implementation of the scheme.
"No income tax payers, vehicle and house owners will be included under the scheme in the first phase," an official said, adding that the second and final phase of implementation of the scheme will be launched in February next year.

He said the beneficiaries of Annashree Yojna, who are getting a monthly cash subsidy of Rs 600, are likely to be kept out in the first phase.

In the meeting, Dikshit issued directions to the departments and agencies concerned to make all necessary preparations for rolling out the food scheme in the city on August 20.
In a meeting, Dikshit directed Chief Secretary D M Spolia and the food and civil supplies department to complete all the ground work for launching the scheme as planned.
Dikshit will give a presentation about Delhi's government's preparation to implement the scheme at a meeting Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi will hold with party Chief Ministers on July 13.
Assembly polls in Delhi are slated for November and Congress is likely to highlight implementation of the scheme in the city in the election campaign.