Kerala - Alappuzha   

Consumerfed to open 4,000 Onam outlets

ALAPPUZHA: Consumerfed will open 4,000 Onam outlets in the State to sell 31 items at prices lower than the general market rates.

Thirteen of these items will receive a subsidy from the State government and the subsidy for the rest will be managed from Consumerfed funds, he said.

Speaking after the State-level inauguration of the Consumerfed’s Onam outlets on the premises of the Vadakal Service Cooperative Bank here on Sunday, Cooperation Minister G. Sudhakaran said the items to be sold would include the Jaya brand of rice, which would be priced at Rs.14 a kg when the price in the general market was up to Rs.19.50 a kg. Kera brand coconut oil would be sold at Rs.67 a kg, as against the price of Rs.75 in the general market. Once the Onam season is over, the outlets will be converted into Ramzan outlets for another one month.

Similar outlets will be opened during the Christmas season as well, the Minister said.

The Consumerfed is planning to open two pharmacy institutes in the Malabar and Travancore regions to offer B.Pharm. The institutes are mean to train adequate number of pharmacists to run the Cooperative Department’s Neethi Medical Stores. The 400 Neethi Medical Stores operating across the State have elicited a tremendous response from the public and the government is contemplating opening one store each in every panchayat in the State.

Every municipality will have at least two Neethi medical stores, while every corporation in the State will have at least five each, he said.

The activities of the Consumerfed will be extended to more Triveni and Consumerfed outlets. Alappuzha district, where three stores were opened recently, will have two more shortly.

A floating Triveni outlet, costing Rs.50 lakh, will also be launched shortly to cater exclusively to the water-logged Kuttanad region as well, he said. Consumerfed president A.K. Narayanan, Registrar (Cooperative Societies) Rani George, K.S. Manoj, MP; Municipal Chairman P.P. Chitharanjan; District Panchayat president R. Nazar and District Cooperative Bank president C.B. Chandrababu spoke.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Ploy against cooperative movement: Minister
Consumerfed to open 4,000 Onam outlets

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu