Few takers for govt’s cheap tur dal
Indian Express: A new scheme of the Pune district collectorate to sell tur dal at a subsidised rate of Rs 55 per kg through the Public Distribution System (PDS) has found few takers.
In an attempt to make tur dal available to around 17 lakh ration cardholders belonging to Above Poverty Line, ‘Annapurna’, ‘Antoday’ and Below Poverty Line families, the government had started this scheme whereby dal is available for a price that is Rs 40- 45 per kg less than the retail price. However, district officials say this initiative has not found many takers.
“We have over 1,000 tonnes of unsold tur dal left over with us since the scheme started. People do not seem to like this dal; they do not like the taste and they are complaining that the dal takes too long to cook,” said Ravindra Kulkarni, deputy collector and supply officer (Rural), Pune district.
Over the last two months, officials have surveyed around 60-70 parts of Pune district to collect feedback on tur dal distributed through PDS. Between August and September, the state allotted 3,318 tonnes of tur dal to Pune district. The collectorate was able to lift only 1,900 tonnes of the tur stock — the delay was partly because the tur crop had to be sent to the millers to convert it to dal. But finally, only 823 tonnes have been distributed to the cardholders till now.
“The demand for this dal is not there. Consequently, we have revised our demand for October. We made a request for only 240 tonnes of the dal, as there is a lot of stock left and we do not have sufficient storage space. We will place additional requests if more demand comes in,” Kulkarni said.
“It is only in Velhe taluka where the people are accepting this imported variety of tur dal. It is probably because many parts of this taluka are remote,” Kulkarni added. The collectorate has time till November 30 to lift the tur dal stock allotted for October.
“The Indian variety of tur dal takes 20 minutes to cook, the imported variety takes double the time. Even if they get the dal at subsidised rates, they end up spending much more on fuel,” said Kiran Moghe, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana.
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