CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has begun distributing the Pongal gift hampers ahead of the festival and more than 1 crore beneficiaries have availed the hampers so far, as reported by Daily Thanthi.

On the occasion of Pongal, the government provides Pongal gift hampers which include free dhoti and sarees to family card holders across the state.

On January 9, Chief Minister MK Stalin had inaugurated the distribution of Pongal hampers to family card holders at the Saidapet fair price shop operated by the Triplicane Urban Cooperative Society.

State Minister for Cooperation KR Periyakaruppan said that nearly 2.2 crore family card holders will benefit from it and about 50,000 cooperative society employees have been deployed for this.

Accordingly, 1,47,07,584 family card holders have received gift hampers till Sunday. Pongal gift packages have been provided to families living in Sri Lankan Tamil rehabilitation camps as well. With this, 67 percent of the work has been completed and work of providing gift packages to the remaining beneficiaries is in full swing, he said.