MK Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, distributes ‘Pongal’ gift hampers to beneficiaries

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin distributed harvest festival ‘Pongal’ gift hampers containing 20 items, including a full piece of sugarcane, to beneficiaries, marking the state-wide distribution of over 2 crore families at an estimated cost of Rs 1,296.88 crore.

On Tuesday, CM Stalin presented the gift, which was packaged in a cloth bag, to ten beneficiary families at the state Secretariat here.

According to the government, tokens with the date and time are being distributed to ration card holders in order for them to collect the Pongal gift from ration shops.

According to an official release, the Stalin government’s move is intended to prevent people from congregating at the same time at low-cost stores to receive the festival hamper.

The state government urged residents to exhibit COVID-compliant behavior when visiting Public Distribution System locations.

According to a PTI report, the gift hampers are available to a total of 2,15,67,122 ‘rice’ category ration card holders and Sri Lankan Tamils living in camps in the state.

In addition to sugarcane, the cloth bag contains 19 essential commodities such as raw rice, jaggery, cashew, resin, cardamom, moong dhal, ghee, turmeric powder, chili powder, coriander, mustard, cumin, pepper, tamarind, Bengal gram, urad dhal, Rava, wheat flour, and salt.

The festival hampers distribution event was attended by Cooperation Minister I Periyasamy, Food Minister R Sakkarapani, Health Minister Ma Subramanian, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister P K Sekar Babu, Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu, and senior officials.

On November 17, last year, CM Stalin announced the gift hamper scheme. During the previous AIADMK regime, similar gift hampers were distributed for Pongal.

Notably, ‘Pongal’ is celebrated as ‘Tamizhar Thirunal’ (Tamil People’s Festival) on January 14.