Udhayanidhi claims free rice is being polished and sold at ₹30 per kg across TN

The Leader of the Opposition They are Stalin. | Photo credit: PTI

Leader of Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin on Saturday accused the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)-led government of polishing rice meant for free distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and selling it as A-grade fine variety rice at ₹30 per kg.

Mr. Udhayanidhi was referring to rice being sold by the state government at ₹30 per kg through 260 cooperative and Amudham trading houses across the state as a measure to control food price inflation.

“People in Tamil Nadu claim that when they go to ration shops, the rice normally distributed free is polished and sold as ‘Ponni quality rice’. People are also returning the rice at several places,” Mr Udhayanidhi said in a post on X, referring to the incident at Cumbum in Theni district.

“Though Tamil Nadu has 2.28 lakh ration cards, there have been complaints that polished rice is being distributed as ‘Ponni quality rice’ at only 250 places, with only 5 kg given to each family,” he said.

When prices of essential commodities rose in 2007, the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi announced a special public distribution scheme under which essential commodities, including palm oil, tur dal and urad dal, were procured through transparent tendering and distributed to the public at subsidized prices, the opposition leader said, questioning the government over the tendering process and the subsidies that followed.

Published – 24 Oct 2026 23:12 IST