Dhaka: The government will sell rice at Tk10 per kg to 50 lakh (5 million)extremely poor families across the country under the ‘Food-friendly Programme’.

Each family will be given 30kg rice per month for five months—March, April, September, October, and November —every year, Food Minister Qamrul Islam said while talking to reporters after a meeting at the Secretariat on Sunday, reports UNB.

The minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the programme at Chilmari in Kurigram this month.

He also said the government will need 7.50 metric tons of rice per year for the programme.

From now on, cash money will be provided under Test Relief and Food for Work (Kabikha) programmes instead of food grains, Qamrul said.

He said the government had earlier decided to procure 7 lakh metric tons of paddy and 6 lakh metric tons of rice in the ongoing boro season.

However, it later decided to procure 2.50 lakh metric tons more rice. ‘The government has so far collected 7 lakh tonnes of paddy and 3 lakh tonnes of rice,’ he said.