"We hope that there would be no more bad rice given to the Rastra program recipients. In the past, there was lousy rice provided for the program`s recipients," the minister said.
Takengon, Aceh (ANTARA News) - Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa expressed hope that there should be no more lousy rice for Social Rice Assistance (Rastra) recipients.

"We hope that there would be no more bad rice given to the Rastra program recipients. In the past, there was lousy rice provided for the programs recipients," the minister said when witnessing the distribution of Rastra assistance by the state logistics board (Bulog) in Takengon, Central Aceh, on Saturday.

She said Bulog also continued to make improvement so that the Rastra provided for the financially week people is decent for consumption.

The government is providing 15 kilograms of medium quality Rastra for each of recipient family.

Khofifah said the distribution of the rice assistance this year was started from Takengon.

She called on district heads and mayors to accelerate the issuance of the letter of distribution order for Bulog to channel the assistance. It is expected that by the third week of January, the distribution would have been completed.

The minister said regional heads should speed up the distribution of the rice assistance based on the directives of the president on the acceleration of all development programs, including social assistance and subsidy.

The distribution of the Rastra program at the beginning of the year is expedited in efforts to increase the peoples purchasing power.

Central Aceh District Head Alhudri said the number of Rastra recipients in the district in 2016 was recorded at 13,614 families with a total assistance of Rp17.80 billion.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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