DMK largesse: Rice at Re 1 a kilo

With an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections, the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu decided to further liberalise the cheap rice scheme for ration card holders in the state, reports MR Venkatesh.

With an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections, the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu on Saturday decided to further liberalise the cheap rice scheme for ration card holders in the state by halving the price of the staple food from the present Rs 2/kg to just a rupee a kg, from September 15.

HT Image

A meeting of the DMK’s district secretaries on Saturday cleared the deck for taking the cheap rice scheme one notch up the populist scale coinciding with centenary celebrations of the party’s founder-leader CN Annadurai from September 15, the party President and Chief Minister, Mr M Karunanidhi, announced after the meeting.

Revisiting one of the most populist offers before the 1967 Assembly elections when the DMK then, under Annadurai’s leadership, had promised giving rice to the poor at “Rs. One per Madras Measure (slightly less than today’s one Kg),” a resolution adopted at Saturday’s meeting said though “Annadurai's good intent could not then become reality, his centenary year now provides a unique opportunity to redeem that pledge.”