West Bengal will offer a 50% discount on selected food items distributed through the public distribution system (PDS) to around 2.12 crore families during the Puja season, Food and Supplies Minister Ashok Kirtania said. The festive package will include sugar, wheat and suji, with the state government expecting an additional expenditure of Rs 114 crore.
Under the package, each family will receive 1kg of sugar, 1kg of wheat and 250g of suji. The items will be sold at half their market prices, according to the minister’s statement reported by the Times of India.
The announcement represents a wider beneficiary reach than the previous festive arrangement. Kirtania said the earlier government had provided a 10% discount only to beneficiaries holding Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and SPHH cards. That arrangement covered around 78 lakh families, he said.
The new package extends the discount to approximately 2.12 crore families, placing the PDS network at the centre of the state’s seasonal food-support programme. The scale of the proposed coverage means that the measure will involve a large number of ration-card holders across West Bengal, although the supplied announcement does not specify the distribution schedule, the dates for collection or the mechanism through which eligible families will receive the items.
The state’s additional expenditure of Rs 114 crore is linked to the festive package. The announcement does not provide a separate item-wise cost breakdown or explain whether the expenditure will be released in a single instalment or across the distribution period.
The arrangement also places operational importance on the PDS system, including the availability of the three specified commodities, their movement to ration outlets and the ability of beneficiaries to access them during the Puja season. The minister’s statement did not provide details on procurement, stock levels, participating outlets or procedures for addressing shortages.
For households covered by the programme, the immediate benefit is a reduction in the price of the specified festive food items. The extent of the saving for individual families will depend on the market prices used for comparison, while the announcement confirms only that the items will be sold at 50% of their market prices.
The state government’s next steps are expected to involve implementing the package through the PDS network during the Puja season. Further details on distribution dates, outlet-level availability and beneficiary procedures were not included in the announcement.