Jaya blames Centre for hike, says subsidy for dhal to stay

Squarely blaming the UPA regime for the price rise, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said rice would be procured from West Bengal to tackle increase in price of fine rice variety in the open market. She said that her AIADMK government would continue to provide subsidy for dhal varieties and palmolein sold at Public Distribution System (PDS) outlets.

While the subsidy for dhal varieties and palmolein would entail an expenditure of Rs 907.08 crore for a period of six months, the State Price Control Fund will be utilised to supply rice at Amudam and cooperative outlets at cost price.

Arguing that the price rise of essential commodities was caused by the economic policies of the Union government, Jayalalithaa said toor dhal, urad dhal and palmolein would continue to be provided at subsidised rates and sold at the same price of Rs 30 for toor and urad dhal, and Rs 25 for palmolien for six more months beginning October 1 in ration shops.

In an official release, Jayalalithaa said a high-level meeting presided by her took stock of the issue of price rise of fine rice varieties in the open market as the kuruvai crop was affected due to the non-supply of Cauvery water by Karnataka. “I have ordered procurement of rice from paddy-rich West Bengal and its distribution through Amudam and cooperative outlets under the TN Civil Supplies Corporation at cost price,” the CM said. Rice variety ‘Sorna’, which is on a par with Tamil Nadu’s Ponni, and Bengal’s ‘Minikit’, equivalent to TN’s IR 36 and IR 50, will be sold at the cost price of `25 (Sorna) and `31 (Minikit) respectively.