Kolkata: The West Bengal government
has decided to provide subsidized rice at Rs 2 per kg to sex workers and poor
HIV patients in the state.
The project, being touted as a
brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, will also include leprosy
patients, deaf and dumb children in various state-run homes and about one lakh
beneficiaries will be identified for the purpose across the state.
As per EXIN Times, the department
will begin a survey in the next few days to identify sex workers and
HIV-positive patients in the state, Mullick said. “The survey will be completed
in the next six months and the implementation of the project will start from
January next year… We have seen how old and ill sex workers suffer at times. So
this project of providing them rice at a subsidised rate will help them to some
extent. The same applies for poor HIV patients in the state,” he added.
Officials said the survey would
identify beneficiaries by initially focusing on red light areas such as
Sonagachi in Kolkata. In the second phase of the survey, officials would
identify HIV-positive patients by collecting data from hospitals. “To identify
HIV-positive patients, we will appoint a food department official in all the
state-run hospitals. We will collect the data from the hospital and send those
details to the health department for further verification,” Mullick said.
Once verification is complete, ration
card numbers of the HIV-positive patients will be put into the data bank of the
food department so that they can avail rice at Rs 2 per kg from nearby ration
shops, he said.
The minister added that the move
would also take additional measures to ensure that the details of the
beneficiaries aren’t made public.
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