Officials told to ensure quality

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 1. The Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Mr. G. Karthikeyan, has asked officials to ensure the quality of rice and other food grains distributed through the public distribution system.

He said here today that he was issuing strict instructions in this regard as there were complaints that the rice being distributed in many places was unfit for consumption.

The Minister stated that the stock or rice in the godowns of the FCI was decaying and that he had brought it to the Centre's attention. The off take of rice from the ration shops had come down considerably after the Centre hiked its price. The off take of rice which was one lakh tonnes per month before the price rise, was a mere 40,000 tonnes now.

Mr. Karthikeyan said that the complaints were mainly about the rice supplied under the `annapoorna', `anthyodaya' and `annayojana' schemes.

The Government's stand was that the quality of the rice distributed under these schemes to the very poor should never be low. Strict instructions had been issued for maintaining the quality of the rice distributed under these schemes, he said.

He offered to probe complaints, if any, about the selection of beneficiaries for these schemes. They were being identified with the help of the local bodies. Politics would not be allowed to influence the identification process in any way.

He added that 70 per cent of the beneficiaries had been identified and the remaining too would be selected within 15 days.

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