All district headquarters to have Indira Canteens in three months

U.T. Khader, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, has said that all district headquarters will have Indira Canteens to supply subsidised food within three months in the State. Addressing presspersons here on Saturday before chairing a review meeting at the Deputy Commissioner’s office, he said that the government has started the process to open the canteens across the State simultaneously. With regard to giving LPG connections to poor families, the Minister accused the Union government of not giving connections to all poor families in the State under the Prime Minister’s Ujwala scheme. “This will create social imbalance and discrimination against the poor families. The Union government should ensure LPG connections to every poor household and not limit it to certain families,” he said. Stating that the Union government was giving LPG connections to only around 10 lakh families while the State has around 30 lakh families that have no LPG connections, Mr. Khader said that the State government would provide connections to the remaining families under the Chief Minister’s Anila Bhagya Yojane. “The State government will start calling for applications within a fortnight for giving LPG connections to the deserving people in the State,” the Minister said. About ration cards, Mr. Khader said that the Ministry has cancelled around 10 lakh bogus BPL cards saving around 40,000 tonnes of rice given under Anna Bhagya Scheme in the State. He said that the Ministry was in the process of converting around 24,000 ration shops into Seva Sindhu Centres where people could get other benefits such as PAN and Aadhaar cards along with monthly ration. He said that as of now, only 10 such centres have been opened in Bengaluru. However, they would be extended to the entire State in a phased manner. He said that while by December-end, 10,000 ration shops would be converted into Seva Sindhu Centres, by May-end next year, the government plans to convert all 24,000 shop into such centres.