The suspension of subsidised palm oil supply through the public distribution system (PDS) is set to dilute Dasara and Deepavali festivities, especially in the homes of poor tribal people in Adilabad.
It may sound unbelievable but there are hundreds of families in this district that may not be able to prepare the special festival eatables this instance in the absence of subsidised cooking oil.
Normally, Adivasis get their first income from agriculture around this time when they harvest pulses. The delay in kharif season by over one month owing to the prolonged dry spell has left the tribal farmers high and dry right at the festival time.
“The consumption of edible oil goes up from 1 to 3 kg during the festivals even in the poorest of tribal homes. However, affording even Rs. 300 to purchase the oil in open market is a difficult task for them,” concedes a fair price shop owner in Jainoor.
“We will go to the weekly shandy in Jainoor on Thursday to purchase all the grains needed to make special eatables. But, we will have to borrow money from the 'saet' (money lender) to do so,” says Pendur Ambubai, a Gond woman from Polasa village in Jainoor mandal, summing up the situation for all the women who will form a group on the shandy day before approaching the money lender.
Adivasi Gonds, Kolams and Pardhans compulsorily make the garka (garelu), purun podiyan (boorelu) and neesarin (resembles a dosha), all with rice flour. These items need a lot of oil for frying.
“Palm oil distribution has been suspended since April this year. The Central and the State governments are not paying subsidy of Rs. 26 on 1 kg packet of palm oil since then,” revealed M. Anand Reddy, the District Manager, Civil Supplies.
Adilabad was earmarked a quota of about 7 lakh litres of palm oil, at the rate of 1 litre per person per month to white cardholders, before its supply was suspended. The number will go down given the decrease in number of white ration cards following weeding out operations carried out recently.
