No pulses, palmolein oil in TN fair price shops -Governance Now

No pulses, palmolein oil in TN fair price shops

Official admits its supply to fair price shops has stopped

Shivani Chaturvedi | March 16, 2017 | Chennai

#palmolein oil #pulses #fair price shops #DMK #unavailable

Pulses and palmolein oil have vanished from the fair price shops in Tamil Nadu. An official admitted that its supply has stopped, but assured that the scheme has been extended so the commodities will reach the shops in some time.

There has been no supply of pulses and palmolein oil in fair price shops across the state since December.

Vaani Suresh from Chennai says she hasn’t purchased palmolein oil since December last year. There are a few who even complain that supply has been erratic since November and it completely stopped after December.

The Tamil Nadu government has failed to provide beneficiaries with urad dal, tur dal and palmolein oil, which it supplies under its special public distribution system or SPDS.

A shopkeeper at a fair price shop in Chennai, however, says that they haven’t received any supply of urad dal, tur dal and palmolein oil since January.

The opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) carried out protests in front of ration shops across the state to demand supply of essential commodities.

Pradeep Yadav, principal secretary to government, cooperation, food and consumer protection department, admitted to Governance Now that supply of these commodities was stopped after December last year.

“Extension of the scheme under special public distribution system was done till December 2016 only, so the supply of these commodities to fair price shops had stopped. However, the scheme is now extended for another six months. It will take some time for the supply to reach fair price shops across the state,” he says.

There was no crisis of other essential commodities like rice, sugar and kerosene, he adds.

The scheme under special public distribution system funded by the state government was introduced as a market intervention measure so as to control the prices. It is a subsidised scheme where consumers get tur dal and urad dal at Rs 30 per kg each and palmolein oil at Rs 25 per litre.

The state government had been spending around Rs 200 crore a month on pulses and palmolein oil. Sources say that the financial burden on the government led them to discontinue the scheme after December last. However, the demand from consumers, plus pressure from shopkeepers and opposition have forced them to re-introduce the scheme.

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