The Telangana government has decided to join the free rice scheme of the Centre under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
The Central scheme envisaged supply of five kgs of rice per head per month in a family to NFSA cardholders in the State.
But the State government will extend the scheme to an additional 35.52 lakh cardholders at its own cost.
The two types of cardholders had been getting the benefit of free rice under the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana under the Public Distribution System (PDS) till December 31.