The programme has been rescheduled to cover 900 people instead of 450 in each union, planned earlier, according Nilphamari Sadar Thana Controller of Food (TCF) Abdul Wahed.

The RRP is designed to help the ultra poor in the present monga (a pre-harvest lean period when poor people suffer due to lack of work).

He told this correspondent yesterday that he received a letter from higher authorities recently to prepare for RRP food distribution from October 7. The rescheduling will be effective in all the eight northern districts, he said.

Earlier, 450 ultra poor people were selected in each union by the Union Parishad and the lists were checked and verified by the army.

As per the changed programme, Union Parishads will submit lists of more 450 ultra poor people to Upazila Nirbahi Officers and army personnel will check and verify those from October 1 to October 4.

Under the RRP, each cardholder will get six kilograms of rice once a month at Tk 4 per kg. The quantity may be increased, sources said. Union Parishads will distribute the rice.

The RRP will be in addition to other programmes like Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) and Open Market Sale (OMS) of rice during the monga period.

Sources in the district Food Department said allotments were sent to upazilas to start the programme from October 1.

Talking to this correspondent, Shahjahan Chowdhury, president of Nilphamari District Union Parishad Chairman Samity and Chairman of Kundu Pukur UP in Sadar upazila, said it would be difficult to prepare new lists of beneficiaries within such a short time.

As monga has already started, the government should have launched the RRP from October 1 as scheduled earlier and then bring more people under its cover.