The Tirunelveli Region will soon get 110 Amma mobile ration shops for those cardholders in far off places and in places situated a bit away from their ration shops, Minister for Cooperation Sellur K. Raju has said.
Addressing a review meeting here on Thursday, he said the Department of Cooperation was opening ration shops in adequate numbers. The department had created 2,438 ration shops - 676 full-time shops and 1,762 part-time shops - across the State since 2011. For these shops, 1,973 buildings – 1,231 for full-time shops and 742 for part-time shops – had been built. To reach the hitherto uncovered areas or cardholders living in little far off places from ration shops, 3,501mobile ration shops were being introduced on an outlay of ₹ 9.66 crore.
Tirunelveli region comprising Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts would get 110 mobile ration shops soon as part of this arrangement.
The department was opening cooperative stores near ration shops where the public could buy 300 types of essentials at 5% discount. It had opened 712 cooperative stores so far across the State including 18 in Tirunelveli region, which got 10 more shops on Thursday.
The Farm Fresh Cooperative Stores, which were opened to ensure unhindered supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to the public at right price, had so far sold 58,258 tonnes of fruits and vegetables worth ₹ 172.99 crore to consumers through 79 shops across the State. The mobile farm fresh shops that were inaugurated following the pandemic were of very much helpful to residents.
The ‘Amma Pharmacies’, being run by the Department of Cooperation, had sold drugs worth ₹ 1,012.31 crore at 20% discount.
“Cooperative banks across the State have deposits of ₹ 26,245.17 crore on March 31, 2011 which had gone up to ₹ 59,278.05 crore on July 31, 2020. The cooperative banks have given loans to the tune of ₹ 3,84,903 crore to 7.66 crore beneficiaries,” he said. He informed that the department had constructed 4,044 godowns with a capacity of 5.17 lakh tonnes on an outlay of ₹ 533.78 crore.
Inaugurating the distribution of free masks to the cardholders, he said Tirunelveli district would receive 16.13 lakh masks even as 5.46 crore masks were being distributed across the State to protect the public from COVID-19 infection.
Mr. Raju inaugurated 10 cooperative stores and 10 buildings built at a cost of ₹ 2.17 crore and distributed assistances worth Rs. 86.36 crore to 9,850 beneficiaries in the presence of Collectors Shilpa Prabhakar Satish of Tirunelveli and G.K. Arun Sundar Thayalan of Tenkasi and MLAs.
