‘Public can draw essential commodities at fair price shops by providing family card number, biometrics’

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Minister for Food and Civil Supplies P. Venkataramanan on Thursday said that the original smart cards need not be produced to draw essential commodities at fair price shops in the State. It would be enough if a digital copy is shown or number is given along with the biometric data by the card holder.

Speaking on the demands for the Food department in the State Assembly, he said that card holders can draw commodities at any shop of their choice. "Suppose someone is travelling, they can draw their essential goods from a shop in the vicinity," he explained.

MLAs including S. Kamaraj of Mannargudi and K. Karthikeyan of Kallakurichi expressed concerns over lack of internet connectivity at fair price shops in far flung areas of their constituencies. Mr. Kamaraj wanted to know if the old method of just issuing bills for the goods could be opted in such locations. "In the Kalvaroyan Hills, the scanning devices keep lagging. Nearly 25% of my population lives in the hills," said Mr. Karthikeyan.

Later, the Minister announced that as part of the government's efforts to augment storage capacity for food grains, 15 godowns will be constructed in 13 districts at a total cost of ₹81.60 crore. He said the combined capacity of these facilities would be 31,000 tonnes and they would be for use of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation.

They would come up in districts including Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Salem, Kancheepuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli, Thanjavur, Karur, Coimbatore, Thenkasi, Salem, Sivagangai and Namakkal. The warehouses would have drinking water and toilet facilities for staff too.

The Minister also announced the construction of three modern godowns at the existing storage premises' belonging to the Tamil Nadu Warehouse Corporation at Ariyalur, Namakkal and Mettupalayam at a cost of ₹13.50 crore with a combined capacity of 3400 tonnes. Maintenance of 17 existing godowns belonging to the corporation would be taken up at a cost of ₹12.61 crore.

Mr. Venkataramanan said that lands belonging to the Dharmapuram Aadheenam were being used to create additional storage for food grains. Steps would be taken to prevent loaders from collecting ₹50 per bag of paddy from farmers at the direct procurement centres.

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