Centre flayed for hike in PDS rice price

Ramadoss in a statement issued here on Monday said, “it is highly condemnable that the Union government has deceived the common man by increasing the price of PDS rice, the staple food of people of Tamil Nadu, by three times. 

“The state has around 2 crore cardholders and 1.91 households are dependent on the rice distributed free of cost.” 

Pointing out that the state government was procuring rice from the Centre at different rates, the PMK leader said, “the rice offered under the Antodaya scheme was being purchased at a cost of Rs 3 per kg by the State government from the Centre. Similarly, for the quota to be supplied to the BPL beneficiaries was being procured by the state government Rs 5.65. Likewise, the monthly share to Above Poverty Line (APL) is bought by at Rs 8.30. At this juncture, the rate for the rice supplied to the APL cardholders has been hiked to Rs 22.54/kg,” Ramadoss claimed. 

This would make a severe impact on the monthly budget of the common man during the festival time, he felt. Pointing out that a total of 2.96 lakh tonnes of rice was being sold per month through fair price shop, he said that those coming under the APL category were receiving 1.26 lakh tonnes, which is nearly half the monthly quantity of rice supplied through the PDS shops.

The PMK founder leader added that there was no need to increase the price of rice at this time and it was a clear betrayal of the rice beneficiaries of the public distribution system in Tamil Nadu by the Centre.