Bhubaneswar: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik had on Saturday announced to launch a food security scheme, which got the cabinet's approval here on Monday.

Under this scheme, 5kg rice will be provided to each beneficiary per month at the rate of Re 1 per kg. The distribution of rice to the new beneficiaries will start from October 2.

Briefing reporters about the cabinet decision, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said: "It will be an open-ended scheme. There will be no fixed quota of beneficiaries. But in the first phase, 25 lakh beneficiaries have been targeted under this state-funded scheme."

Padhi said the government would bear the additional financial burden of Rs 220 crore for six months (October to March) during this fiscal. The government will make the additional provision in the supplementary budget, he said.

The Centre had fixed a quota of 78 per cent of Odisha's population (4.2 crore) according to the 2011 census, which comes around 3.26 crore beneficiaries, when the National Food Security Scheme was started in Odisha.

However, by 2018, Odisha's population has come around 4.62 crore (according to the growth of population at the rate of 14 per cent per annum). If the same percentage of 78 per cent coverage for the National Food Security Scheme is followed, there is a shortfall of around 34,44 lakh beneficiaries.

"The issue was taken up with the Centre a number of times to increase the target by 34.44 lakh for the National Food Security Scheme. The chief minister had also written to the Prime Minister on the issue. However, no response was received from the Centre. That's why the state government has decided to cover all poor, distressed and eligible beneficiaries, who have been left out under the National Food Security Scheme," said Padhi.

"The Odisha government is committed not to leave a single poor, distressed and eligible beneficiary from food security coverage," he said.

For identification of the beneficiaries under this state-funded scheme, there will be eleven auto-inclusion and nine auto-exclusion criteria.

Anti-liquor protest

Over a hundred women on gheraoed Bongomunda police station in Balangir, demanding immediate closure of liquor outlets in and around Tetelpada village.

Women of the village staged a demonstration and raised slogans against the illegal sale of liquor. The protesters alleged that because of the presence of liquor outlets in the area, many villagers had become regular customers.