Brinda Karat moots PDS items for all citizens

Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, Feb 23 (UNI) CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat today urged the Centre to supply ration items through the Public Distribution System (PDS) to all the citizens, irrespective of their BPL or APL categorisation.

''For supplying PDS items, there should be no divide as people below the poverty line or above the poverty line. All the families should be provided ration items,'' the Marxist leader, who was here to participate in the public meeting organised by the Left parties, demanding the implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel project, said.

The present system of supply of ration items has denied the benefits to a majority of Adi Dravidars, Scheduled Tribes and landless rural poor, she claimed.

Ms Karat urged Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram to follow the Tamil Nadu model of PDS and announce it in the budget session of Parliament.

Holding the Centre's ''wrong policies'' responsible for skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, she alleged that the Government's decision to allow global trading of such commodities had resulted in price escalation and urged the Union Government to put an end to it in the budget session.

Ms Karat sought the waiver of farm loans as it came in the way of achieving the set target of four per cent for yield.

Asking Mr Chidambaram to turn his attention to the plight of the farmers from the fluctuating fortunes of the sensex, the CPI(M) reiterated its demand for writing off the existing farm loans and disburse fresh loans.

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