Govt Denies Lapse in Toor Dal, Palm Oil Supply

Chennai: State Minister for Food and Civil Supplies R Sakkarapai denied allegations by opposition party leaders that the government had not distributed toor dal and palm oil to family card holders for the months of May and June and assured that it would be supplied to all card holders.

Responding the allegations made by Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami and BJP State President K Annamalai on Tuesday, Sakkarapani said that for the May quota of 1,89,89,000 kg of toor dal, 1,37,79.00 kg of had been supplied to card holders.

For June, 40,16,000 kg of toor dal has already been distributed and the rest of the cardholders would get their entitlement soon.

As far as palm oil supply goes, all card holders had received their entitlement for the month of May and for June 78,44,160 sachets have been distributed and the rest would be done in due course, he said.

In the last three years of DMK rule, Rs 14,679 crore worth 7 lakh metric tonnes of toor dal and 64,62 crore sachets of palm oil had been distributed to 2.32 crore ration card holders in the State, the Minister said, adding that it was M Karunanidhi who, during his tenure, in 2007, included toor dal and palm oil in the list of essentials supplied through ration shops.

However, during AIADMK rule toor dal and palm oil were not distributed to card holders in the months of January and February in 2017, the Minister recalled.

Earlier in the day, Palaniswami and Annamalai had launched a scathing attack on the government accusing it of not supplying toor dal and palm oil to card holders and reneging its responsibility citing model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha election as the reason for the inability to procure the essential items.

However, the Minister clearly gave the dates on which permission was sought for the procurement and how much of the essential items were distributed to the people in May and June.