CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday flagged off seven mobile ration shops from the secretariat. The scheme is being implemented in the hilly and remote areas of the state since 2014.
At present, 3,501 mobile ration shops are functioning across the State serving 5,37,315 family card-holders in getting the essential commodities. The government has allocated Rs 9.66 crore towards this.
An official release here said former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had, on February 24, 2014, launched the mobile ration shop system to help the people living in hilly and remote areas. Through this system, 48 mobile ration shops were launched to serve people in 277 villages in Tiruppur, Trichy, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Erode, Namakkal, Salem, Tirunelveli, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Nilgiris. Besides, 27,420 family card holders in 54 streets in Chennai also benefitted from this system.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also launched the distribution of rice fortified with iron, folic acid and Vitamin B-12 under a pilot project to be implemented jointly by Central and State governments jointly for three years. Members of six families have received the bags with fortified rice from the Chief Minister at the secretariat.
The fortified rice would be useful for women, children and elderly persons for maintaining good health and to prevent anaemia. Under this scheme, all family cardholders in Trichy district would get fortified rice from October 1. While family cardholders would get 14,500 metric tonnes of rice, 500 metric tonnes of rice would be distributed to the beneficiaries under ICDS and nutritious noon-meal scheme.