Jayalalithaa seeks additional rice, kerosene for rain-hit people

Chennai, Dec 19: Tamil Nadu government today urged the Centre to allocate 30,000 tonnes of rice and 19,100 kilolitre of kerosene to cater to the needs of the people affected by the recent torrential rains and floods in the state.

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said her government had opened 7,150 relief camps and provided food to over 19 lakh affected persons, distributing more than 1.35 crore food packets.

To mitigate the suffering and hardship faced by the affected people, the state Government was extending a relief package which includes rice besides other materials as per the State Disaster Response Fund norms, she said.

The requirement of rice, taking into account the food distributed through the relief centres, distribution of food packets in affected areas and the quantity required for the flood relief package was expected to be around 30,000 tonnes, she informed the Prime Minister.

As this requirement of rice will be in addition to the regular entitlement under PDS, an additional allocation of rice will be necessary, she added.

The Chief Minister said she had directed her officials to start distributing additional quantity of rice to affected families from existing stocks available with Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation.

"I request you to kindly direct the Ministry of Food and Consumer Protection to make a special allotment of 30,000 MT of rice to Tamil Nadu...," she said.

Jayalalithaa also said there was in increased necessity for kerosene as some of the households had even lost their LPG cylinders in the floods while firewood was not available due to heavy rain.

"There are nearly 38.20 lakh households without LPG connection in the affected districts which received excessively heavy rainfall. The requirement of additional quantity of kerosene to these 38.20 lakh households works out to 19,100 KL," she said.

Jayalalithaa requested Modi to direct the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to allot 19,100 KL of kerosene to Tamil Nadu in addition to the regular allotment for issue under the Public Distribution System. The additional kerosene will be supplied to cardholders in rain affected areas at PDS rates, she said.

PTI