KCR hails NTR rice scheme

Hyderabad: The short discussion on ‘Aasara’ pensions scheme in the Telangana Assembly on Thursday witnessed few interesting moments.

Replying to questions raised by the Opposition members with regard to the eligibility criteria and the actual implementation of the scheme, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao became nostalgic when he averred that “Rs 2 per kg of rice” scheme, introduced by the founder president of TDP, N T Rama Rao, was his favourite one as its popularity percolated down to the remotest of the villages.

He said the popularity of the Rs 2 per kg rice scheme was so popular that even illiterate women of remote hamlets were taking fair price shop dealers to task if the dealers demanded anything beyond Rs 2 per kg.

KCR further said the scheme forced even the then Congress Chief Minister Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy to implement the scheme with a slight modification by fixing the price at Rs 1.90 paise.

It is interesting to note that KCR’s remarks on the rice scheme implemented by NTR came on a day when the Centre issued orders renaming the domestic terminal of Shamshabad airport as NTR terminal.