CHENNAI: The recent reshuffle of senior IAS officers heading the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC), which oversees procurement of food commodities for the public distribution system and handles paddy procurement on behalf of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) under the union government, has raised concerns that all is not well within the department.
Within three months of taking charge as managing director of TNCSC, senior IAS officer John Louis was transferred on Monday, and appointed as the managing director of Aavin. He is succeeded by A Annadurai, who was serving as Aavin’s managing director.
Annadurai becomes the third IAS officer to assume charge as TNCSC’s MD since February this year. The order was issued by chief secretary N Muruganandam.
TNCSC receives an annual budget allocation of around Rs 12,000 crore for procuring commodities including toor dal, palmolein, sugar, ragi and other items under the PDS.
It also procures paddy from farmers on behalf of the FCI. Of this, the state government allocates about Rs 7,500 crore exclusively for implementing the special PDS under which toor dal and palmolein are distributed at subsidised prices.
Louis has taken charge as managing director of TNCSC, succeeding A Shanmuga Sundaram, who served from February to July this year.
Sundaram proceeded on leave before being transferred as controller of examinations at TNPSC, after farmer protests erupted over the suspension of procurement by the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF), a union government agency, in non-delta districts.
The suspension led to delays in paddy payments worth over Rs 150 crore, as conversion into rice was held up and stocks stored in open procurement centres began to spoil.
Notably, Annadurai had earlier served in the same post between July 2023 and February this year. In another reshuffle, IAS officer A Karpagam, joint secretary in the Higher Education department, was transferred as deputy commissioner (Education) of the Greater Chennai Corporation. The orders were issued by chief secretary N Muruganandam.