Date:05/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/05/stories/2006090501070500.htm

Kerala - Alappuzha

`Part of reduced wheat quota to be restored'

Staff Reporter

ALAPPUZHA: All-India general secretary of the Fair Price Shops Dealers' Association (FPSDA) Babychan Mukkadan said here at a press conference on Monday that Union Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Sharad Pawar said the Union Government would allot 5,000 metric tonnes of wheat to the State.

Mr. Mukkadan said the allotment was a part of the 27,077 metric tonnes of wheat deducted by the Centre from the wheat quota of the State since June.

Leaders of the FPSDA met Mr. Pawar recently along with leaders of the organisations of ration retail and wholesale dealers of various States.

Mr. Mukkadan said the Centre would allow the fair price shops here to powder wheat and sell it. He said Union Minister of State for Petroleum Din Shah Patel assured association leaders that the Centre would not immediately implement its decision to do away with the kerosene quota to the ration card owners classified as being above the poverty line.