ANANTAPUR: Sugar has become sour to more than seven-lakh poor families having white household supply cards in the district as they have not been getting ration supply through the public distribution system since August this year.

Short supply of sugar to the PDS by the millers has been cited as the reason for this. The officials concerned explained that the millers were not supplying the levy sugar to the PDS, as the market price of the commodity was very high. Sugar was being sold at Rs. 21 per kg in the open market against Rs. 13.50 per kg in the PDS.

Requirement

Against a requirement of 740 tonnes for more than 6.7-lakh white cardholders the district has been getting only 240 to 250 tonnes per month since August. When contacted, Joint Collector Shashi Bhushan Kumar told The Hindu that priority was given to the poor in urban areas till October. But, in November the white cardholders in the erstwhile taluka headquarters were supplied sugar.

In December they have decided to supply sugar only in the rural mandals, which had not been getting the commodity since August, he said. On availability of rice, he said the administration was able to get its total requirement of 19,000 tonnes even in November.

LPG refills

On the problem of LPG, Mr. Kumar said the situation had become near normal as the waiting for supply in majority of the 26 dealers had come down up to six days.

There are about three-lakh LPG consumers in the district including Deepam connections.

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