The government has disbursed Tk 875 crore to procure 2 lakh tonnes of rice to provide 50 lakh new ration cardholders with food under the ministry of disaster management and relief.
Finance ministry on Tuesday disbursed the said amount as per emergency request from secretary of ministry of disaster management and relief Shah Kamal to meet demand of hungry people during coronavirus pandemic.
Director General of food, Sarower Mahmud, told The Business Post that 50 lakh families will get ration from May.
Disaster management ministry is now running a programme to distribute Tk 10 per kg subsidized rice among the ration cardholders of 50 lakh low-income people. The government allocated 7 lakh 50,000 tonnes of rice in this fiscal budget for food rationing.
Official of the finance ministry said the disaster management ministry will start distribution of rice among 50 lakh poor people from first day of Ramadan.
According to a survey report of two independent local research centers -- the Power and Participation Research Center and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development—on Friday revealed that “The average income in the slums of Bangladeshi cities and among the rural poor has dropped by more than 80% since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.”
On April 16, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a videoconference from her official residence Ganabhaban said the government is going to issue 50 lakh more ration cards for vulnerable families hit by the countrywide shutdown due to the coronavirus situation.
She said, “Committees have already been formed to list those most in need.”
At the same time, she warned against any corruption and misappropriation in distributing relief among the poor amid the crisis.
Millions of people have become jobless across the country, as the shutdown was imposed by the government since late March in a bid to contain the COVID-19 outbreak continues.
/ask/wi
