Cut in palm oil price in Tamil Nadu: CM

Chennai, Oct 23: In yet another step towards easing the burden of poor people from spiralling prices, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi announced reduction in the price of Palm Oil being sold through the Public Distribution System (PDS).

An official release here said, under the special PDS scheme, the Palm oil,which is used for cooking, would be sold at Rs 35 per litre from the present Rs 40, reducing the price by Rs 5.

After launching a special PDS scheme under which essential cooking ingredients like pulses were being sold at subsidised rate, the Chief Minister introduced the 'revolutionary' Rs one a kg rice scheme aimed at reducing the burden of the poor people.

To ease this burden further, he also launched a condiment package for the poor through fair price shops. The package, costing Rs 62, was being sold for Rs 50. It was launched on October two by Mr Karunanidhi.

Close on the heels of this scheme, came today's announcement bringing down the price of Palm Oil from Rs 40 to Rs 35.

Meanwhile, Food Minsiter E V Velu said the government has decided to include more condiments in the subsidised package as the scheme has proved to be a huge success and the government was selling about Rs one to 1.5 lakh packets every day.

He said at present the government was procuring condiments from two leading firms and packing them in godowns in the state before they were being despatched to PDS shops.

As this involved transportation costs and delay, the government has decided to involve women Self Help Groups(SHG) in the districts for packing the condiments under the supervision of the respective District Collectors.

In a statement here, Mr Velu said, the government after reducing the price of rice from Rs two a kg to Re one, was supplying the same quantity of rice and denied reports that the rice being supplied was sub-standard.

UNI