10 kg rice, 2 kg sugar free to card holders in UT

Puducherry, Oct 18 (UNI) As a Diwali gift, the Puducherry administration will provide ten kg free rice along with two kg of free sugar to all ration card holders in the Union Territory, Chief Minister N Rangasamy said today.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Rangasamy said 2.97 lakh card holders would be benefitted and the exchequer would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 4.5 crore. The rice and sugar could be availed from the ration shops till the end of this month.

In order to uplift the Scheduled Tribe (ST) people, including Irulas and Kattunaikar in the Union Territory, the administration at its meeting yesterday, had decided to provide housesite pattas to them in places such as Koonichampet, Thirukkanur and Bahour, the Chief Minister added.

He said about 800 ST families are there in the UT and the administration would provide them job opportunities by appointing them as sweepers through the local bodies. Loans would be provided to them to purchase milch animals, he added.

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