The Registrar of Cooperative Societies on Thursday informed the Madras High Court that a ₹500 grocery kit being sold by the State government, during the ongoing lockdown, can be purchased even by those who do not have ration cards and that the kits will be available in other outlets too apart from all ration shops.
In a counter affidavit filed before Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and M. Nirmal Kumar, Registrar G. Govindaraj said the kit, containing 19 items of consumables, was basically intended to help the poor and the middle class people who were affected by the increased prices of essential commodities during the lockdown.
The Cooperative department had come up with the idea of selling the kits to mitigate the grievances of a particular section of people and hence it was decided to sell those kits through ration shops.
“Now, the grocery kits will also be made available for sale at self-service units, retail outlets, Amma mini cooperative supermarkets and mobile farm fresh outlets,” he added.
The counter was filed in response to a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam seeking a direction to the government to ensure door delivery of the grocery kits to avoid crowd in the outlets.
Door delivery
However, the Registrar did not commit whether it would be possible to ensure door delivery of the kits.
He said, “The sales personnel in ration shops are engaged in issuing COVID-19 relief package of ₹1,000 and essential commodities to all cardholders. They are continuing to work in this extraordinary situation. They have been stepping out of their homes and serving the people to avoid hunger and to ensure availability of food items during the lockdown period.”
With this submission, the Registrar urged the court to dismiss the PIL petition as devoid of merits.
