The union cabinet which was chaired by prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee decided to approve an additional allocation of rice at the rate of 10 Kg per family at BPL rates per month in addition to the existing allocation under the public distribution system (PDS) by Orissa government for distribution in the KBK districts.

According to Patnaik, this decision of the cabinet would be given effect immediately he said and added that this landmark decision was a reflection of the centre's Commitment to the poor people of the areas as,till now, there was no provision for making additional allocations at BPL rates. This decision to allocate more than 10,000 tonnes ofrice per month would require a subsidy of over Rs 93 crore per year.