Poll promise of LPG cylinder at Rs 500 will be implemented in 100 days: Telangana minister Uttam Reddy

The scheme may cost the state exchequer up to Rs 4,000 crore a year, the Congress minister said.

3 min readHyderabadUpdated: Dec 25, 2023 08:36 AM IST

Reddy also accused the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government of mismanagement and destroying the department's financial health. (X/@UttamINC)

Even as the Congress party’s poll promise of supplying an LPG cylinder at Rs 500 has caused quite a frenzy of excitement on the ground ever since it rose to power, state Food and Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy Tuesday assured that the party would honour the promise in 100 days.

Reddy was speaking to the media after a review meeting of the department when he reiterated that the promises of a gas cylinder at Rs 500 and a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal of paddy, which are part of the Congress’s six guarantees, will be implemented within 100 days.

“I have conducted a detailed review of the functioning of the Civil Supplies Department to get an overview of how these two guarantees could be implemented efficiently,” he said. The details of an exact number of beneficiaries were still being worked out and soon a new system would be evolved to implement the scheme, he said, adding that the scheme might cost the state’s exchequer about Rs 3,000 crore – 4,000 crore per annum.

The minister also revealed that almost 90 per cent of the rice being provided by the Centre and state for Rs 39.02 per kg was not edible. According to him, the beneficiaries were selling the poor quality Public Distribution System (PDS) rice to dealers, idly-dosa units, poultry farms, etc, for as low as Rs 5 per kg.

“If the rice being given to poor people is not edible, then the entire purpose is lost,” he said, and directed the department officials to conduct an in-depth study on the quality of rice being supplied to ration card holders.

Reddy also accused the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government of mismanagement and destroying the department’s financial health. The civil supplies department today has an alarmingly high outstanding debt of Rs 52,067.03 crore and it lost Rs 3,645.25 crore due to interest on these loans, he said.

The corporation’s current losses at Rs 11,449.51 crore, he said, include losses of Rs 5,226.95 crore due to non-release of subsidy by the Centre and state governments and Rs 6,222.56 crore due to MSP operations. The Centre owes Rs 4,256 crore to the department and the matter would be taken up with Union Minister Piyush Goyal during Reddy’s visit to Delhi on Wednesday.

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