11/04/2013 (Hindu Business Line) - A kg of tur dal, one litre of palm oil, one kg of whole wheat atta, one kg of wheat, half a kg of sugar, one kg of salt, 250 gm of chilli powder, 500 gm of tamarind, and 100 gm of turmeric.

A shopping list? Not quite. This is the Andhra Pradesh Government’s subsided hamper for 2.25 crore white card holders in the State to mark Ugadi, which falls today.

Under this Telugu New Year scheme (called ‘Amma Hastham’), every white card holder (for below the poverty line population) will be entitled to these nine commodities every month for Rs 185 against their market price of Rs 292. The subsidy of Rs 107 per card holder will set the Kiran Kumar Reddy Government back by Rs 660 crore a year. Unfazed, it has promised to monitor and maintain the quality of the nine items.

This largesse follows the ‘rice for one rupee a kg’ scheme started this January for white card holders.

Called the ‘Mana Biyyam’ scheme, it was formally launched on Sankranti day by Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Even the recent sharp hike in the power tariff was partially rolled back by exempting those who consumed less than 200 units from the increase — a substantial relief, considering that this will cover nearly 75 per cent of consumers.

With the State set to go to the polls in May 2014, these may not be the last moves to soften up the electorate. Watch this space.