Taking strong exception to further reduction in the Central allocation of kerosene to Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to enhance the quota to the required level of 65,140 kilo litres per month or at least restore it to the April-May, 2011 level of 52,806 KL.
In her letter to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister drew his attention to the latest reduction in the allocation, which was 39,429 KL for the quarter of April-June 2012. She argued that this had been done “without any reason or logic.”
Recalling her previous letter and memorandum in June last year in which she referred to the "unfair treatment" in the reduction of the Central allotment of 52,806 KL for April-May 2011 to 44,580 KL for June, Ms Jayalalithaa said: “While I have been all along pointing out to you that the poor people in the rural and urban areas of Tamil Nadu depend on kerosene supplied through the Public Distribution System (PDS), this callous approach on the part of the Government of India in consistently reducing the allocation is tantamount to penalising the poor people of Tamil Nadu simply because they voted for the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Government, which is in power at present.”
Terming the action of the Central government as totally arbitrary, she said the deliberate reduction in the allocation of kerosene by the Government of India to Tamil Nadu even to the extent of 50 per cent of the actual requirement “is absolutely unreasonable, unacceptable, unfair and unjust.”
