Centre has cut kerosene, wheat allocation for TN: Minister

Chennai: Food minister R Sakkarapani on Thursday alleged that the Union government had betrayed the interests of Tamil Nadu by reducing the allocation of kerosene and wheat in the public distribution system. The state has 30 lakh families without LPG connections and requiring 9,000 kilo litres of kerosene a month if one goes by the conventional estimate of three litres per person.The minister told reporters that the allocation of kerosene was 59,852kl a month in 2006, but it was reduced gradually to 7,536kl when the DMK government took over in 2011. It has now declined to 2,712kl. “When the issue was taken up, Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Rameswar Teli responded saying that allocation was reduced because the state has high LPG connections,” Sakkarapani said. The DMK regime extended free LPG stoves-cum-connection to 29 lakh families in 2006-11.Similarly, the Centre brought down the allocation of wheat to 8,532 tonnes this month from 30,647 tonnes in May, affecting several beneficiaries. It has been asked to increase the tonnage to 23,532, the minister charged and hinted at a visit to Delhi to seek an increased allocation from the Centre.Sakkarapani said the government would introduce ragi in PDS in a phased manner after the successful launch of the scheme in Dharmapuri and The Nilgiris on a pilot basis next month. Each rice cardholder would get 2kg of ragi in lieu of rice in these two districts, besides 18kg of free rice.