People living in Bargur Hills urge the district administration to provide relief assistance of ₹1,000 and essential commodities to them as they do not have ration cards.
There are 33 hamlets located in the hills where getting essential commodities is a challenging task due to absence of transportation and shops. People living in western hill hamlets Thalakarai, Tholli, Onnakarai, Osur, Kovilnathan and Kongadai and those in eastern hill hamlets Onthanai, Devarmalai and Madam, and people in Sholaganai, Kuttaiyur, and Kathirimalai, all located around Bargur, depend on agriculture for their earnings. Due to lockdown, they were unable to commute in the hill area to reach shops in Anthiyur to purchase essentials.
The State Government is providing ₹1,000 as relief assistance for rice cardholders while free essential commodities are provided to all the people in the State. “But over 300 families in these hamlets do not have ration cards and hence, they were refused relief assistance”, said S.C. Natraj, Director of Service Unit for Development Activities in Rural (SUDAR), a Sathyamangalam-based NGO that runs Special Training Centres for rescued child labourers. He said that earnings of the people were crippled and they were finding it hard to manage during the lockdown.
Mr. Natraj said that since these families possess Aadhaar card, assistance should be given to them at the earliest. “Denial of assistance as they do not have ration card is unjust in the current situation”, he added.
