The sale of A-grade fine-variety rice at ₹30 a kg under the Tamil Nadu Government’s price stabilisation scheme was launched by Minister for Animal Husbandry C. Kamali in Tiruppur district on Monday.
Inaugurating the sale at the Tiruppur District Consumer Cooperative Wholesale Stores, Kamali said the initiative had been launched on the direction of the Chief Minister to make quality fine-variety rice available to the public at an affordable price through the cooperative network.
Tiruppur district has 241 cooperative institutions, including 183 primary agricultural cooperative credit societies, nine land development banks, 24 employee cooperative societies, two urban cooperative stores, two urban cooperative banks, four agricultural producers’ marketing societies and three special-type cooperative societies.
These institutions operate 1,213 fair price shops, comprising 859 full-time and 354 part-time outlets. Essential commodities are distributed every month through these shops to 8,23,549 ration cardholders.
The monthly distribution includes 12,452 tonne of rice, 1,042 tonne of sugar, 642 tonne of wheat, 762 tonne of turdal and 762 tonne of palm oil, the Minister said.
To curb the rise in rice prices, the State government has directed that A-grade fine-variety rice be sold at ₹30 a kg under the price stabilisation scheme. The Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation has allocated 32 tonnes of rice to Tiruppur district for this purpose.
Of the total allocation, 16 tonne have been allotted to the Tiruppur District Consumer Cooperative Wholesale Stores and the remaining 16 tonnes to the Udumalpet Urban Cooperative Stores. The rice is being sold at ₹30 a kg through these two outlets.
The scheme will remain in force until March 31, 2027, or until further orders from the government, Ms. Kamali said, urging the public to make use of the subsidised sale.
MLAs Balamurugan and Ramkumar, Managing Director of the Tiruppur District Consumer Cooperative Wholesale Stores S. Bhuvaneswari, and Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation Regional Manager Maharaj were among those who attended the event.
