Coimbatore: From December, 1, 5kg of chana will be distributed free of cost to all the Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and priority household (PHH) ration cardholders in the district through fair price shops.
An official with the office of the district supply officer said the Union government had a few months ago announced the plans to provide 1kg chana to the AAY and PHH cardholders for five months from July to November under phase II of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY-II) scheme.
The district has 9.76 lakh rice cardholders, of which 51,981 are AAY cardholders and 3.42 lakh are PHH cardholders, the official said and added 1,971 metric tonnes of chana was required to implement the scheme.
He said they have been receiving chana since last week and they were in the process of distributing it to the ration shops across the district. Each ration shop would be stocked with required quantity of chana before the end of this week, he said.
“The distribution would commence from the beginning of next month. The cardholders are advised to collect their quantity within the month-end. We have also instructed the sales people to handover the product after swiping the customers’ cards using PoS machines to prevent irregularities,” the official said.
G Rajendran, state president of Tamil Nadu Ration Shop Employees’ Union, said instead of limiting the assistance just to the AAY and PHH cardholders, the government should consider distributing it to other cardholders also.
“Chana is cooked only occasionally in our region and people might not be able to use the 5kg before it gets spoiled. It would be better if the government were to reduce the quantity and give that to other cardholders as well,” he said.