The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Lankan refugees want more from ration shops

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Monday, May 19, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Lankan refugees want more from ration shops

Karthik Madhavan

‘Government grant does not insulate us from price rise’

PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

Difficult times: Sri Lankan refugees say they want the State Government to bring more items under the public distribution system, to help them face price rise. —

R. Rajakumari’s is a three-member family that lives on Rs.3,000 a month in Erode.

Within the income, the school teacher has a lot of things to take care of: monthly household expenses, her son’s education, house rent and also exigencies.

In addition to the income, she gets a monthly, subsidies ration from the State Government by virtue of her Sri Lankan Tamil refugee status.

Kerosene

The Government provides 12 kg of rice a person at 52 paise a kg, sugar and kerosene.

The last two, however, do not carry any subsidy.

A refugee gets half-a-kg of sugar a month subject to a maximum of two kg a family and five litres of kerosene a month a family.

The income and Government grant have, however, not insulated her from price rise.

“The rise in prices of onion, potato, greens, chicken and fish has forced the family suffer a Rs. 1,000 deficit budget,” she says.

This is despite the Government also providing monthly monetary grant of Rs. 400 for a family head, Rs. 288 for an adult and children over 12 years, Rs. 180 for the first child, if it is below 12, and Rs. 90 for every child thereafter.

“Though the Government helps us, we are unable to cope with the situation because we use more sugar and maida, which forms as important a place as rice in our meal,” she says.

Ms. Rajakumari points out that the price of maida alone has gone up from Rs. 12 to 20 a kg in the recent past.

For B. Marina, another refugee with five children, the story is more or less the same.

She says the family has brought down sugar and oil consumption.

“We have halved the sugar consumption from 30 to 15 kg a month, and also oil,” she says.

This, however, has not helped her make the ends meet.

The result: the family had been mortgaging jewellery to make up, the homemaker says.

The story of the 620-plus persons in 135 families in the Arachalur camp is no different.

As their sufferings are almost the same, so is their demand. They want the Government to bring more items under the public distribution system for refugees.

The refugee camp leader, J. Benito, says it will be of great help if the Government doubles the kerosene supply from five to 10 litres a month.

“Kerosene is the only fuel we depend upon, as we are not entitled for LPG cylinders,” he reasons.

He also wants the Government to distribute more sugar and remove the two-kg-a-family cap. The refugee also wants maida, palm oil, pulses and oil to be included in the distribution list.

Mr. Benito reasons that when they get only rice at a subsidy and everything else at prices others pay, the Government can as well distribute other items.

He urges the Government to make the move considering their refugee status.

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