Food and Civil Supplies Minister G.R. Anil on Saturday said the government has completed half of the distribution of Onam food kits to the residents of welfare institutions in the State. A kit each is being provided to four inmates of the welfare institutions.
In a statement, Mr. Anil said kit distribution is also completed in 50 out of 136 tribal villages. The kits have also been distributed to 62,018 Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration card holders as of 7.45 p.m. on Saturday.
He pointed out that the non-availability of certain items such as Milma’s ‘payasam’ mix and RAIDCO’s curry powder had led to the delay in supplying kits in certain places.
Paddy procurement
The Minister said the disbursal of arrears for paddy procured by Supplyco will be completed soon. The agency had procured 7.31 lakh tonnes of paddy during the 2022-23 season and was supposed to pay ₹2,070.71 crore to the farmers. Out of this, Supplyco directly transferred ₹738 crore to the farmers’ account. While ₹200 crore was disbursed with assistance by Kerala Bank, another ₹700 crore was obtained through a consortium including SBI, Federal Bank and Canara Bank as loan.
While the government sanctioned ₹180 crore, ₹72 crore has been disbursed among 26,548 farmers whose arrears were less than ₹50,000.
