THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister GR Anil has appealed to the ration traders in the state to withdraw their shop-closed strike from tomorrow. "The government cannot accept any strike that denies food grains to the people. The government's priority is to provide food grains to the people without any interruption. Those due to whose fault the people were denied food grains will have to pay food security allowance to the beneficiaries," the minister said.

"It is not the government's failure that is preventing people from getting food grains here. NFSA Act provides for providing food security allowance to the beneficiary in case the food grains to which they are entitled are not available. In the event that the government completes the door-to-door distribution of food grains and is ready to continue distributing the grains to the people, the ration traders are obliged to deliver them. Otherwise, they will have to pay food security allowance to the beneficiary," the minister reminded.

The minister said that the government will take steps to provide food grains to the people in any way possible in the event that the ration traders in the state go on strike. The minister said that from tomorrow, all the officials of the Public Distribution Department have been instructed to be present and work by understanding the current situation and that a control room has been opened at the Civil Supplies headquarters. Control room number: 9188527301.

"Currently, 330 ration shops are being run under cooperative institutions in the state. 156 shops in the state are being run by temporary licensees. One shop is being run by Supplyco. The above-mentioned ration shops, i.e. 487 ration shops, will open tomorrow. Ration shop licensees are only the intermediaries who deliver the food grains allocated to the state through FCI to the people. Ration traders should examine whether their approach of closing their shops and going on strike without distributing food grains to the people is correct," the minister said.