Buddha plays NTR card OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Calcutta, July 31: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today reduced ration shop prices of rice, pulses and palm oil, a few months after the panchayat and civic poll jolts that possibly prompted the relief voters in southern India are more familiar with. The chief minister, however, told the Assembly that the prices were lowered "to provide relief to people when prices had risen phenomenally because of the Centre's policies. For this, the state government will provide subsidy'. Around 1.91 crore people below the poverty line will get rice at Rs 5.15 a kg instead of Rs 6.15. In the above poverty line category, around 5.9 crore people will get it at Rs 7 a kg, down from Rs 9. Bhattacharjee said the government would supply pulses from the ration shops now. Pulses will cost Rs 2 a kg less than the market price. Palm oil will also be sold, at Rs 52 a kg when the market price is around Rs 60-65 (see chart). The new prices will be effective from September 1, just when the festival season kicks in. Finance minister Asim Dasgupta said the government would lose Rs 50 crore each month to provide the subsidy. In the south, the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government re-introduced the Rs 2 a kg rice scheme in Andhra Pradesh from April this year. The cheap rice scheme had once played a significant role in ending the stranglehold of the Congress on the state after N.T. Rama Rao conceived the idea in 1983. Although NTR lost the 1989 Assembly polls, he came back to power in 1994 when he promised he would offer rice at Rs 2 a kg and clamp total prohibition. In 1995, when NTR's son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu assumed power, he lifted the dry rule and diluted the rice scheme by increasing the cost, first to Rs 3.50 a kg and later to Rs 5.25 a kg. Bhattacharjee's announcement came after criticism from Front partners at last week's meeting. Leaders from the Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI urged the government to slash prices of essential commodities through the public distribution system. The Trinamul Congress's Partha Chatterjee stood up in the House today to protest that Bhattacharjee had flouted rules by making a statement on the price cut when a debate was under way on a non-official resolution. Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim, however, said a minister could make a statement on any issue anytime. Food minister Paresh Adhikari said: "The decision to reduce prices was taken for the first time in three years (of this government.'