AGARTALA, Jan 30: The Tripura government has decided to give licences for opening 51 new fair price shops in the state, state food and civil supplies minister, Sushanta Chowdhury said on Tuesday.
At present, there are 1,060 fair price shops and 9.76 lakh ration card holders in the eight districts of the state.
“The government has decided to provide 51 new dealerships of fair price shops to improve the service delivery system for ration card holders. Under the new guidelines, there will be a new ration shop for 400 ration cards,” Chowdhury said.
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Each ration shop at present serves 900-1,200 ration card holders, which causes inconveniences for the people to get ration materials on time, he said.
“Things will improve once the new ration shops are in place. People will not have to travel long distances to get the supplies from ration shops as a result,” he added.
Chowdhury said the government has also decided to provide an additional 5 kg of rice to each ration card holder in February and March at a price of Rs 13 per kg for APL (above poverty line) card holders.
Families having BPL (below poverty line) and priority group cards will get the additional 5 kg of rice free of cost.
At present, BPL and priority group card holders get 35 kg of rice per month free of cost, while APL card holders get 20 kg per month.
Chowdhury said the government was working to replace the existing paper cards with PVC ones. (PTI)
