The Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department has decided to form one more zone in Chennai, taking the total number of zones to 17, Food and Civil Supplies Minister E.V. Velu informed the Assembly on Friday.
Referring to the creation of the Virugumbakkam Assembly constituency after the delimitation of constituencies, the Minister said the Villivakkam, T. Nagar and Saidapet zones of the department came under the new constituency. The new zone would be formed by combining 40 fair price shops attached to the three zones and 26 shops in Maduravoyal, Nolambur and Vanagaram, all close to Virugumbakkam. As of now, 98,305 family cards were attached to the 40 shops and 52,560 cards to the 26 shops. In total, there would be 1,50,865 cards and 66 shops in the Virugumbakkam zone.
Prior to the re-organisation, 73 fair price shops and 1,38,794 family cards were attached to the Villivakkam zone; 94 shops and 1,72,768 cards to T. Nagar and 96 shops and 1,76,226 cards to Saidapet. Hereafter, the respective numbers of shops and cards would be 62 and 1,12,299 for Villivakkam; 79 and 1,39,338 for T. Nagar and 82 and 1,37,846 for Saidapet.
Mr Velu noted that the number of family cards had gone up considerably in suburbs of the city.
