Tamil Nadu Govt will spend whopping Rs 3,500 cr for food subsidy:Stalin

Chennai, Nov 2: The Tamil Nadu Government would spend a whopping Rs 3,500 crore this year for providing food subsidy, Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin said today.

Addressing a function organised on behalf of the Food Department at suburban Tambaram, he said the state governmnet was incurring the food subsidy for providing essentials at low prices under the Public Distribution System (PDS).

He said by providing rice at Re One per kg and ten cooking condiments at Rs 50, besides essentials like toor dhal, urad dhal and palm oil at reduced price, the government, last year had allocated a total subsidy of Rs 2,900 crore.

This year, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had proposed to increase the subsidy to Rs 3,500 crore as the consumption of rice, wheat and other essentials under PDS has substantially increased, he added.

The consumption of rice, which was 2.5 lakh tonnes, three years ago, has increased to 3.18 lakh tonnes. Similarly, the consumption of wheat had increased from 6000 tonnes to 13,000 tonnes and sugar from 20,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes, Mr Stalin said.

Fulfilling the poll promise, the Chief Minister, on the day of assuming office, had reduced the price of rice to Rs two a kg, but later made it One rupee a kg, he said.

In an oratorical competition, organised in connection with Anna centenary celebrations, a school boy had rightly said 'Father of Nation-Mahatma Gandhi and Father of Ration-Dr Kalaignar,' Mr Stalin said.

Mr Stalin's reference to food subsidy assumed significance in the backdrop of government withdrawing the subsidy of Rs 30 for LPG cylinders being provided to over 57 lakh households with single cylinder connections. The government withdrew the subsidy with a hope to save Rs Seven crore a month.

However, Mr Stalin has not made any reference to the withdrawal of the subsidy, while giving details of the subsidy incurred by the state government.

To prevent ration shops coming out with fake list boards, it had been decided to provide electronic boards to all ration shops. For this purpose a sum of Rs 57 lakh has been allotted this year, he added.

Stating that food portfolio was a sensitive portfolio in any government, he said it would be difficult for the Food Minister to retain his portfolio, but Mr E V Velu had been performing very well in the past three years, Mr Stalin commended.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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