Sun Mar 30 21:30:00 UTC 2025: ## Telangana Launches India’s First Free Fine Rice Scheme
**Hyderabad, March 31, 2025** – Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy launched India’s first free fine rice scheme on Sunday, providing high-quality rice (“sanna biyyam”) to over 30 million people through ration shops. The initiative, launched in Huzurnagar, aims to improve food security and directly benefits the state’s poorest citizens.
CM Reddy lauded Telangana’s farmers for their record paddy harvest, contrasting the current administration’s support with the previous government’s warnings against paddy cultivation. He highlighted a ₹1,199 crore bonus paid to 4.41 lakh farmers to facilitate the scheme. He criticized former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for neglecting the idea of providing fine rice and for his alleged threats to farmers. Reddy asserted the scheme’s permanence, confident that future governments would not dare to discontinue it. He also recounted the historical context of rice distribution in the state, emphasizing the Congress government’s latest initiative as a landmark achievement.
Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy emphasized the scheme’s impact on food security, noting that the previous poor quality ration rice led to significant diversion to the black market. The new scheme, he stated, will be a “game changer.” He further detailed PDS reforms under the Congress government, including the issuance of 1 crore new ration cards (physical, QR-code enabled) replacing the older system which saw only 49,479 new cards issued during the previous 10-year rule. The new cards will be color-coded, differentiating between Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) households. Telangana’s substantial fine paddy production, particularly from Nalgonda district, underpins the scheme’s feasibility.
First Piper 