The Tamil Nadu Government that had embarked on distribution of Pongal goodies should not discriminate among public distribution system card holders, Coimbatore Consumer Cause had appealed in a letter to the Chief Minister.
The Pongal gift the Government had announced to 2.10 crore card holders was only ‘rice’ card holders and Sri Lankan refugees. It had excluded 4.50 lakh ‘sugar’ and ‘no-commodity’ card holders and the discrimination was unfair.
The Government had issued either ‘rice’ or ‘sugar’ cards based on the people’s choice, irrespective of financial status, he said and reiterated that it gave the card only based on option given by applicants and not based any other condition.
The Government had not given any reason for excluding ‘sugar’ PDS card holders or the ‘no-commodity’ card holders even though it claimed to follow universal PDS.
Consumer body’s secretary K. Kathirmathiyon said the organisation was unable to appreciate the discrimination in Pongal goodies distribution, even though a small section was left out.
Further arguing his case against the discrimination, he said the Government that had included non-priority card holders had left out the ‘sugar’ and ‘no-commodity’ card holders. The card holders’ only fault was that they had opted for either sugar or chose to forgo all commodities. And, this discrimination came out starkly when the Government had admitted before the Madras High Court that even among ‘sugar’ card holders there were poor people.
When multi-millionaires and top bureaucrats could get the Pongal goodies by opting for ‘rice’ card why should ‘sugar’ and ‘no-commodity’ card holders be left out, he asked and added that the consumer organisation was not finding fault with ‘rice’ card holders getting the goodies.
The consumer body had been repeatedly pointing out the discrimination but the Government was yet to provide a solution, he said and appealed to the Chief Minister to equally treat all PDS card holders.
