Sugar, kerosene, tea leaves for poor in ration shops in Bihar

Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar government on Wednesday announced bonanza for the poor by including sugar, tea leaves and kerosene in the list of items to be provided through ration shops.

The decision was taken at a review meeting of food and civil supplies department by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Cooperative Minister Jay Kumar Singh who participated in the review meeting told PTI that sugar was taken out of the PDS outlets' list almost two decade ago.

He said it was decided that each family would get 2 kg of sugar every month from PDS shops. Likewise, the beneficiary families would get 2.5 litre kerosene monthly.

Food Minister Shyam Rajak said the meeting also decided in principle to provide tea leaf to beneficiaries of subsidised ration.

Senior officials of Food and Civil Supplies and Cooperative Department participated in the meeting.

Singh said it was decided to rigorously monitor movement of vehicles carrying subsidised food items to PDS shops by using GPS system to plug leakage in supply.

There are over 45,000 PDS outlets in Bihar and 8.71 crore beneficiaries.