The supply of subsidized rice to the poor in Tamil Nadu is beginning to make waves. But someone else is also happy: smugglers.
CHENNAI: The supply of subsidized rice to the poor in Tamil Nadu is beginning to make waves. But someone else is also happy: smugglers.
Bhanu is a woman who walks half a kilometre to the nearest ration store and does not mind the long queue to collect her family's share of rice at Rs.2 a kilogram. She spent two hours at the shop. But eventually, Bhanu said, it was all worth it. She got 10 kg of edible quality rice at just Rs 20.
"This Rs 2 kg rice is better than what we got earlier. This rice we can eat as saadam (cooked rice). The rice at Rs 3 a kg we got earlier was so bad that we could only make idlis with it," says the 24-year-old mother of two.
Added Sathyabhama, Bhanu's friend: "We never believed that this cheap rice could be good but it is. Now we have to see how long the quality lasts."
The Rs 2 kg rice was an election pledge by DMK chief and new Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and went into effect June 3. DMK leaders say it is meant to make life easier for the poor masses. Families benefiting from the scheme can buy up to 30 kg a month.
But not all those getting the rice can really be called poor. Sathyabhama's husband earns Rs 3,000 distributing drinking water in Chennai. She works as a gardener in two spacious houses and earns about Rs 800 a month.
But even she asserts that the 20 kg of rice her family of four is eligible for at Rs.2 a kg is a boon. The rice being distributed through the public distribution system shops in Chennai and suburbs is better in quality than the rice sold during the earlier administration.
But from Dindigul the reports tell a different story. "The rice is so inedible that we give it to the birds," complained 67-year-old Kunjammal.
While in Chennai vigilance is strict, in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu the subsidized rice scheme has prompted smugglers to divert rice from the state to neighbouring states like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
Some 15 tonnes of rice packed in 220 bags were seized from a truck at Valayar on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border last week. The driver was arrested. The police have also seized 340 bags of ration rice from a truck near the northern border of the city on Friday. It was bound for Andhra Pradesh. Five people were arrested.
The administration says it has stepped up vigil. But greedy traders appear to be in a mood to make money from rice meant for the poor.
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