Token distribution for free essentials at ration shops starts in TN

Chennai: The Tamilnadu government, which has decided to distribute essentials free of cost to family card holders for the month of June too in view of the ongoing Covid-19 induced lockdown, started distributing tokens at doorstep of consumers from today. This will go on till 31 May.

In a statement here, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said cardholders are entitled to get a kg of tur dal, sugar and a litre of edible oil through fair price shops and goods will be distributed from 1 June onwards.

The Tamilnadu government had recently decided to double the rice entitlement of all rice-drawing ration cardholders in the State for the next three months, as a measure to alleviate the hardships caused by the lockdown. This is in tune with the government’s policy of universal public distribution system (UPDS).

There are a total of about 2.01 crore rice-drawing cards, of which priority household (PHH) cards are 1.15 crore and non-priority household (NPHH) cards, around 86 lakh.

The government has set aside around Rs 219 crore towards the provision of tur dal, edible oil and sugar, free of cost, to all ration card holders in June.