West Bengal Food Minister Ashok Kirtania has announced a festival ration package that will provide every ration card-holding family in the state with sugar, flour and semolina at 50% below the prevailing market price. The package is expected to cover about 2.12 crore families and will involve an additional state government expenditure of approximately Rs 114 crore.
Kirtania made the announcement at a press conference on Friday, saying the discount on selected ration items had been increased substantially from the earlier 10% level. Under the new package, each eligible ration card-holding family will receive 1 kilogram of sugar, 1 kilogram of flour and 250 grams of semolina at half the current market price, according to a report by Sangbad Pratidin.
The announcement places the ration network at the centre of the state’s festival-season food support. With the programme extending to all ration card-holding families rather than being limited to a specific community, the measure will be delivered through the existing public distribution system. The scale of the beneficiary base makes the ration system the primary channel through which the package will reach households across West Bengal.
The food minister said the government had initially considered distributing the items free of cost. That plan was changed because of the state’s present financial position. Kirtania attributed the decision to provide the package despite financial constraints to the government’s willingness to make an additional allocation for the festival period.
According to the minister, the estimated extra expenditure for the package is about Rs 114 crore. He described this as substantially higher than spending on similar measures in the past. The announcement did not provide details in the supplied report on the total quantity to be procured, the funding split between the state and ration dealers, or the schedule for distribution through individual outlets.
Kirtania also said that the government could consider making the items available free of cost from next year if its financial position allows. That possibility was presented as a future plan rather than a current decision. For this year, the confirmed benefit is a 50% discount on the specified quantities of sugar, flour and semolina.
The minister was asked whether separate packages would be introduced for Eid or other religious occasions. He said the festival package was not restricted to one community and that all 2.12 crore ration card-holding families in the state would be eligible. The next operational milestone will be the distribution of the announced items through West Bengal’s ration shops under the festival package.
