Tamil Nadu: From now, mobile ration shops will deliver groceries at your doorstep

CHENNAI: Soon, mobile ration shops stocked with sacks of rice, sugar, dal, and sachets of edible oil and carrying staff armed with point of sale (PoS) devices may crisscross the roads. With just months to go for assembly polls, the state government will roll out within a week 3,501 mobile ration shops across the state to take the commodities to the doorstep. The cooperatives department is working out the logistics, including renting out vehicles to deliver the goods to the needy areas.There has been a growing demand in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic to deliver essentials at the doorstep instead of tackling crowds at ration shops.
Cooperative minister Sellur K Raju said there were several requests from elected representatives and the public for new ration shops due to increasing number of card holders. “There are instances of 50 and 60 families in hilly areas facing difficulty in accessing ration, and cardholders crowding PDS outlets in the cities. We would like to cater to people using mobile shops,” the minister told TOI. On a pilot basis, the department has been running 48 mobile shops, including two covering 54 streets of north Chennai and 278 villages in Dharmapuri, Erode, Namakkal, Nilgiris, Salem, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Tirupur, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore and Villupuram.
The mobile shops, estimated to cost ?9.7 crore, will be launched in 37 districts in the state. “An assessment is being made by the zonal officials based on the representations from MLAs and public. The plan is to run the mobile shops one or two days a week in identified areas,” Raju said. It has been difficult for the state to find rented accommodation to run a PDS outlet or own a place in several parts of the state. This, despite the rules suggesting that the cardholders will not have to walk more than 1.5km from their residence to buy commodities.
A shop could be split if the number of cards exceeded 800 in urban areas, 500 in rural and 400 in hilly areas. During the initial phase of the Covid pandemic, districts like Tiruvannamalai attempted to take free ration to the cardholders at their doorstep by hiring tractors and farmers.