Revenue Minister K. K. S. S. R Ramachandran, Food and Civil Supplies Minister R. Sakkarapani, and Commercial Taxes and Registration Minister P. Moorthy conducted a review meeting with the officials of the Food and Civil Supplies department from Madurai, Theni, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar here on Thursday.
Mr. Ramachandran said that several complaints were raised by the public in the last 10 years about the functioning of the Food and Civil Supplies department, but no action was taken to redress these problems.
The Chief Minister has instructed to provide best quality rice to the public through the ration shops. He had also said that strict action will be taken against ration shop staff who get involved in fraudulent activities.
Mr. Sakkarapani said that the officials have been instructed on how to perform their duties efficiently.
There were around 33,055 ration shops in the State. Among them, there were 5,000 shops that have more than 3,000 ration card holders each. The public have requested to spread the ration shops across various places.
There were a total of 2,608 direct procurement centres in the State. The CM has instructed to avoid any unlawful activities in the centres.
There was a target to procure 44 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from farmers this year. Till date, around 37 metric tonnes of paddy have been procured.