Members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) on Friday urged the State government to provide free ration to people across Tamil Nadu for six more months in view of the lockdown.

During a State-wide protest, DYFI State secretary S. Bala said the country had been under lockdown for five months, leaving hundreds jobless. The autorickshaw and taxi drivers were yet to get back into business, he said. “Many others who would travel outside their district for work cannot do so now. How do we expect them to purchase essential commodities,” he asked.

Mr. Bala said that since the lockdown was likely to continue for a while, free rations had to be provided for a longer period. That was the only way to sustain people from low socio-economic background.

The people across districts raised complaints of ration shops running out of commodities. “Our neighbouring Kerala provides 20 odd commodities free to each household. We can surely replicate the model here too,” he said.

The government must hire more persons to work at fair price shops as there were vacancies. Families of workers who had contracted COVID-19 and died while at work too must be provided compensation, he demanded.