Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government will soon supply quality rice through the Public Distribution System (PDS), Food Minister and Civil Equipment R Sakkarapani told the Assembly on Wednesday.
The department, following the direction of Minister M K Stalin, has instructed rice plants, including private factories, to install a color sorting machine to ensure quality rice supply.
The government has fixed August 31 as a factory deadline for installing machines even though the factory owner looks for time until the end of September, the Minister said while answering the demand debate for his department.
“The machine will be installed in Tamil NaduciVil supplying a modern rice factory,” he said.
He added that the AIDMK government had previously bought 1.5 lakh metric tons of poor quality rice to be explored through PDS to the card holder at the end of his regime.
M Panneerselvam from DMK and S Rajeshkumar from Congress said the quality of rice disbursed through PDS was not feasible for human consumption.
“We took this problem for the minister’s notice (Sakkarapani) when he examined our district.
The minister, in turn, directed officials to stop distributing rice,” Panneerselvam said of the Sirkazhi constituency.
Kiliyoor Mla Rajeshkumar echoed the same thing and appealed to the government to reconsider the quality of the quality of PDS rice.
He further said that some poor families did not receive rice because their cards were included under the category of non-priority households.
Kulhithalai MLA R Manickam said the poor quality of boiled rice was purchased from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for PDS, producing 9.5% waste from rice.
The state government faces losses due to waste of rice.
Sakkarapani said, “We have done field inspections in 24 districts and take steps needed to ensure quality rice supply to cardholders.” This department is noting the problem of the wrong ration card categorization, he added.