Free rice for Assam tea workers

he department initially was in a fix as it does not maintain a separate list of tea garden workers because there was no need for a division between the beneficiaries of tea gardens workers and others so far. The results of past elections in the state indicated that majority of tea garden workers had voted in favour of the BJP. "However, it has been estimated that the scheme will put an additional burden of Rs 300 crore per year on the state exchequer," said the source.He added the Congress government had also made an effort to lower price of rice under the NFSA to Rs 2 a kg, but as it put an additional burden of Rs 13 crore a month for the state exchequer, the government abandoned the scheme after two months.The source said the advocate-general of Assam had given a green signal to the government's plan to use the ration cards of the NFSA beneficiaries to advertise the government's schemes using photographs of chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal.Senior officials of the department had reservation about cancelling the existing 60 lakh ration cards ahead of time and print new ones spending around Rs 9 crore following which they approached the advocate-general. Dailyhunthttps://www.mobypicture.com/user/heeeenkeeen