Poor people having ration cards in Orissa would get one kg of arhar dal per month from September, the state assembly was informed on Saturday.
Making a suo motu statement in the house, Food, Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister SP Nayak said the scheme was intended as a market intervention measure in order to bring down prices of pulses.
"About 4,000 mt of dal will be procured from NAFED for distribution among BPL families through Orissa State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) at subsidised price," he said.
It is expected that prices of pulses would come down with arrival of the new crop in the market, the minister said.
The government's action came in the wake of criticism by Opposition that the government was taking no step to help the poor from the pressure of price rise.
While poor families were getting rice at Rs 2 per kg, they were being forced to purchase pulses at Rs 80 per kg, Congress MLA Prasad Harichandan had said in the assembly.