Jayalalithaa writes to PM on kerosene

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has written a letter to the Prime Minster seeking his intervention on the recent decision of the Centre to drastically reduce kerosene allocation to Tamil Nadu.

In her letter, the chief minister said there were 19.5 million ration cardholders in the state, and that kerosene is supplied to them as per the approved norms. The actualrequirement of kerosene for the state is 65,140 kilo litres per month.

Recently, the Government of India has drastically reduced the allocation of kerosene to 44.58 kilo litres for June, 2011, from the earlier allocation of 52,806 kilo liters per month. This allocation itself was reduced one from the earlier level of 59,780 kilo litres given till March 2010.

This gradual reduction of kerosene allocation to Tamil Nadu over the last two years has been putting the public distribution system under severe stress, she said.

"Kerosene is one of the important items under the public distribution system to protect cardholders against inflationary pressures. It would be difficult for the state government to meet the gunuine domestic needs of the public with reduced quantity of kerosene," she said in the letter.

The state government has requested the Prime Minister to increase the allotment of kerosene from 44,580 kilo litres to 65,140 kilo litres per month.