CHENNAI: Opposition parties, including the DMK, Congress, CPM, CPI and PMK, on Saturday took strong exception to the hike in sugar price in ration shops from Rs 13.50 to Rs 25 per kg from November 1 and urged the State government to roll back it immediately.
DMK working president M K Stalin said his party workers would stage demonstration in front of ration shops on November 6 protesting the hike in sugar price. He said the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had vehemently opposed the Food Security Act (FSA), but the law was given approval by present Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam when Jayalalithaa was in hospital. The Centre should exempt Tamil Nadu from implementing the FSA, instead of hiking the sugar price in public distribution system (PDS).
CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan said BJP-led government at the Centre had started destabilising the PDS when it started implementing the FSA in Tamil Nadu last year and already kerosene supply had been drastically cut.
PMK youth wing president Anbumani Ramadoss said when the FSA was implemented in 2016 the State government assured that the interests of cardholders would be protected. Now that assurance had been broken by hiking sugar price.
CPI State secretary R Mutharasan said only a few weeks ago, it was announced that those who have an income above Rs 8,000 per month would not get PDS supplies. Now, the hike in sugar price has come as a warning that in the coming days, rice, which is given free of cost and other commodities, would also be stopped for a majority of the cardholders.
TNCC president S Thirunavukkarasar said the reasons for hiking the sugar price in PDS were unfair as only the poor and middle class bought from ration shops and not the rich.
It’s only nominal, says minister
Madurai: Justifying the rise in prices of sugar being supplied through Public Distribution System (PDS), Cooperatives Minister Sellur Raju said the price revision was nominal and that the common man could afford it. Speaking to media persons, Sellur Raju said the Union government had stopped the subsidy given to sugar and the State government was procuring it from the open market. “Further, the sugar in open market costs D40 per kilogram, while the State had decided to sell it at D25 and it will not affect the common man as the revised price is nominal and is affordable by the ration card holders,” he said.
