When two Hindu communities fell out...
A gruesome violence in Karunatham, a village in Sivaganga district, in the last week of May, leaving three dead and several injured is the latest instance revealing enmity between communities of Hindu society.
The incident was triggered by an altercation over who should offer pooja to the village deity first. Both the communities want to live in amity but the usual practice of sharpening the resentment of the affected community by holding demonstrations, refusing to accept the bodies of the persons killed, etc, vitiated the mood to return to normality. No leader in the public life of the state tried to talk to both the communities with a view to tone down fear and hate. The Karunatham incident was in fact an aberration in the harmonious life of the villagers, mostly engaged in agriculture. The alleged murderers belong to a BC community and the victims to SC community and the media chose to project “atrocity on Dalits” rather than probing the possibility of an early coming together of all communities so that the village progresses.
Fair Price Shops Face Unfair Closure!
State government grant arrears to primary agrarian lending societies has reached a high of Rs. 1000 crores. This has led to closure of co-operative fair price shops meant to cater to the lower and middle income groups who rely on these shops for the basic provisions. There are about 32,546 rations shops altogether run by primary agrarian lending societies. As the commission paid towards the ration edibles are meagre, the State Government grants money every year in order to pay rent, employees’ salaries, electricity bills, etc., for their sustainability. The grant is around Rs. 400 crores. But from 2011 only about 30% to 40% of this was granted. Statistics say for the past 6 years the grant allocated was only Rs. 882.93 crores leaving an unpaid grant of Rs. 540 crores. Worse, no grant was allocated for the year 2017-18. Since the arrears were not granted the co-operative societies are finding it difficult to run the fair price shops. The primary agrarian co-operative employees have voiced their grievance that even the employees’ salaries remain unpaid. If the grant doesn’t reach them on time this year too, there is a definite threat for closure of fair price ration shops leaving poorer sections of society high and dry. This unfortunate development unfolded even as Aadhar enforcement had unearthed 10 lakh bogus ration cards in the state.
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