Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin wrote to Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 requesting him to allot 10,000 MT each of wheat and tur dal per month, from the Central stock. These items will be sold through cooperative outlets to control the increasing prices, the CM said in his letter.
Mr. Stalin also requested the Union Minister to expedite the Union government’s efforts to import these products, in view of the shortage in domestic production. Referring to the worrying trends witnessed in food inflation, the CM urged the Union Minister to take immediate steps to help State governments in mitigating the impact on consumers.
“We [the T.N. government authorities] have floated bids for procuring some of the above items from domestic or foreign producers and they are in process,” Mr. Stalin said.
A copy of the letter was shared with the media.
The increase of prices of many essential food commodities including rice, wheat, tur dal, urad dal and vegetables like tomatoes has burdened poor and middle-class families immensely, Mr. Stalin contended. “Already the inflation rate, as released by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, was high at 12.65% for cereals and products and 6.56% for pulses and products, during the month of May 2023. The recent surge is likely to substantially worsen this situation,” his letter said.
The T.N. government has taken up several measures in this regard such as short-term and long-term price intervention measures like supplying vegetables, food grains and pulses well below the open market price through cooperative outlets and Uzhavar Sandhais (Farmers’ Markets), he said.
The State government was also supplying tur dal, sugar and palmolein every month at highly subsidised rates for all ration cardholders through PDS outlets. It was also supplying rice and wheat free of cost beyond the National Food Security Act (NFSA) coverage through the universal PDS mechanism.
Further, regular monitoring of the stock limits of tur dal, urad dal, moong dal, gram dal, masoor dal and wheat was being done. “In spite of these efforts, the prices of the select essential food commodities have increased, as a part of the nationwide inflationary trend,” Mr. Stalin said.
Following a detailed review meeting on this issue on July 11, 2023, the CM said various instructions have been issued regarding the supply of vegetables and groceries through supermarkets/fair price shops run by the Cooperative Department and the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation.
