price shopsAmaravati, Oct 13 (PTI) Andhra Pradesh government hastied up with Reliance Retail and Future Group to convert fairprice shops under the Public Distribution System into 'VillageMalls'.
Incidentally, Future Retail last year purchased theretail business of Heritage Foods in which Chief Minister NChandrababu Naidu's family has a stake.
Both Reliance and Future will now be partners in theVillage Malls.
In all there are 29,000 fair price shops across thestate of which 6,500 would be converted in the first phase andchristened 'Anna' Village Malls after former Chief Minister NT Rama Rao.
The Chief Minister, at a high-level review meetinghere today, directed the Civil Supplies Department to make theAnna Village Malls attractive and also design a special logo.
The state government, he said, would bear 25 per centof the establishment cost while another 25 per cent would beprovided as loan to the dealers under the Centre's MudraYojana.
Products manufactured by women self-help groups andGirijan Cooperative Corporation would also be sold at theproposed malls along with the agriculture produce procureddirectly from farmers.
"The Anna Village Malls will enable anyone to selltheir products," the Chief Minister added.
Interestingly, it was revealed during the review thatas many 4,599 FPS dealerships were lying vacant in the statefor the past several months.
The Chief Minister directed the authorities to fillthese vacancies soon. PTI DBVRMT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.