New Delhi, Nov. 21: Over 17,000 riot-affected non-BPL families of Kandhamal district in Odisha stand to get an additional 22 kilograms of foodgrains every month at a highly subsidised rate for one more year under a central scheme if an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) agrees to a proposal tomorrow.

The Union ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution has already approved a proposal of the Odisha government for including 17,118 Above Poverty Line (APL) families, who were affected by the communal riots in the district in 2008, under the Union government’s Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) for one more year.

The ministry has sent the proposal to the EGoM headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for its consideration.

The EGoM includes cabinet ministers A.K. Antony, P. Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Anand Sharma, Dinesh Trivedi and Jairam Ramesh.

The group is meeting tomorrow to consider, among other things, the proposal to extend the AAY coverage to the riot-affected APL families of Kandhamal for one more year.

Kandhamal has been identified as one of the most food-insecure districts as per the Food Atlas of Rural Odisha published by United Nations World Food Programme in October 2008.

A survey conducted by the Odisha government identified 17,118 families in Kandhamal district who were hit by riots. However, the riot-affected victims were not covered under the BPL and the AAY schemes.

The survey suggested that these families were facing food insecurity since their economic condition was severely affected because of the communal violence.

Last year, the state government had proposed that these families should be included under the AAY scheme for one year.

The EGoM has agreed to the proposal last year after which these families got additional food grains from July 2010 to June 2011.

“The Odisha government has again proposed that these families should continue to get the benefits for one more year. The ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution has agreed to the proposal. If the EGoM agrees to it, the families will be entitled for the AAY benefits from November 2011 to October 2012,” a source told The Telegraph.

Prior to their inclusion under the AAY, these families were getting the welfare benefits meant for the APL families.

Each family was getting 12.7kg of rice per month.

However, after they were included under the AAY scheme, the Union government provided 35kg of rice to each family per month at Rs 3-per-kg.

The food grain allocation for the 17,118 APL families of Kandhamal district increased from 217 tonnes per month to 599 tonnes. The centre bore a subsidy of Rs 10.01 crore for providing the additional 4,584 tonnes of rice for these families.

“The state government has said it will put into place a foolproof mechanism to ensure that the subsidised grains reach the targeted beneficiaries,” the source said.

The EGoM will also discuss a proposal to export non-Basumati rice to countries such as Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti on diplomatic considerations.