PUDUCHERRY: Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Wednesday accused the opposition parties of enacting a “drama” by organising agitations on the issue of distribution of free rice through fair price shops (FPS) and locking up the shops.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, CM said his administration was committed in providing quality single boiled free rice to all ration card holders in the UT. While the rice was procured from the State Trading Corporation (STC) of the Government of India, the quality testing was done by technical experts from Quality Testing Centre, Thanjavur, he said.
Stating that the distribution of 10 kg rice was hindered for some time, now 20 kg of rice per ration card was being supplied for two months. Thereafter another 20 kg per ration card would be provided to correct the back log. The scheme would then continue in a regular manner with 10 kg per card on a monthly basis. The government has procured 6,000 metric tonnes (MT) of single boiled rice, out of which 1000 MT is for distribution at Karaikal region. Already 4,250 MT was distributed through FPS and the balance 750 MT would also reach the respective FPS. All the card holders would get the rice within two days, he said.
The government was incurring an expenditure of `9 crore a month. However, if the rice mill owners cooperate with the government and supply single boiled rice as levy to Food Corporation of India (FCI) for distribution through PDS, the government would procure it through FCI, said the CM. The UT government would ask for the Centre’s approval for supplying single boiled rice under PDS. He also said steps would be taken to distribute wheat through FPS.
On the teachers recruitment issue, he said the recruitment rules have to be amended to give opportunities to graduates whose applications could not be accepted due to a difference in their degree naming as the degrees they possessed did not match with that in the recruitment rules.
Puducherry government would take up with Tamil Nadu government the issue of Cauvery water and get proportionate water for Karaikal when water is received by Tamil Nadu, he said. Responding to a question on TN government announcing Ossudu lake here as a bird sanctuary, he said the lake covers both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry territory and the Puducherry administration had already announced its desire to develop the lake into a bird sanctuary. Works would be taken up in coordination so that it gets executed properly, he said.
When asked to respond to the unlawful protests and the recent trend of picketing government offices, the CM said Puducherry was a peaceful place and those who resorted to such forms of protests should sort out their issues through discussions with him.