The government will provide rice at Tk10 per kg to 50 lac extreme-poor families across the country from next March under the food-friendly programme, Food Minister Qamrul Islam says.
“Under this programme, each extreme-poor family will get 30kg rice per month,” he told a press conference at the Secretariat on Thursday (Feb 22).
Qamrul said the government decided to purchase 6 lakh tons of rice during this Aman season. It has already procured 5.40 lakh tons of rice. The rest will be procured in due time.
He further said the government has a stock of food grain of 14.20 tons. Of them, 10.40 tons are rice while the rest are wheat.
In 2016, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had launched the food-friendly program for the ultra-poor people at Chilmari Upazila in Kurigram.
The food minister said since then under this programme, rice is provided to the ultra-poor families for five months of the year– March, April, September, October, and November. For that, the government requires 7 lakh tons of rice a year.
Food Secretary Shahabuddin Ahmed and other senior officials were present at the press conference.