The Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer Protection and Price Control, R. Sakkarapani, has said discussions are on to provide coconut oil and groundnut oil through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
“We have held internal discussions within departments regarding this, and will soon discuss it with the Chief Minister,” he said, after inaugurating the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative to create awareness on, and promote, millets and backyard kitchen gardens among students, farmers and Biodiversity Management Committee members at M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai.
He said the State government will introduce finger millet (Ragi) in PDS from May 2023 for all ration cardholders in the Nilgiris and Dharmapuri. “We will provide two kg of Ragi,” he said. He noted that since millet production was low in Tamil Nadu, its consumption had also declined. But the government was taking steps to introduce millets in the people’s diet, he added.
