Amma brand gets bigger, now cooperative outlets take Amma tag - Times of India

CHENNAI: The Amma brand in Tamil Nadu is getting bigger each day. After Amma canteens, vegetable outlets, drinking water and pharmacies, the government would set up Amma Amudam outlets to sell groceries and other essential commodities across the state.

Making the announcement in the state assembly on Friday, chief minister J Jayalalithaa said, "The government will open 300 Amma Amudam outlets across the state at a cost of Rs 37.17 crore to strengthen the food and consumer department, which acts as part and parcel of a person's daily life. These new outlets will be opened in addition to the existing 114 cooperative outlets and 23 Amudam outlets."

Currently, there are 20 Amudam outlets in Chennai and suburban areas besides the three outlets in Cuddalore district. "The commodities sold in these outlets are cheaper and qualitative. The idea is to open similar outlets in the districts with brand Amma," said a government source. Other announcements made by the chief minister include setting up of a 140-tonne modern rice mill in Tiruvarur district at a cost of Rs 16 crore to extract cooking oil from rice bran. This follows a good response from public to the cooking oil extracted from rice bran, the chief minister said.

"At present the rice bran from rice mills are sold to private parties on tender basis and the oil extracted from it will also be used in the manufacture of soap and other beauty products," the chief minister said. The government proposes to construct 39 more godowns with a total capacity of 84,500 tonnes at a cost of Rs 112 crore to upgrade the storage capacity of food grains. With the completion of these new godowns, the state's total capacity to store food grains would increase to 8.36 lakh tonnes, Jayalalithaa said.

Paddy farmers will get 100 direct procurement centres across the state at a cost of Rs 35 crore. "Out of the 100 centres, 75 will be set up in the Cauvery delta area and the remaining in Tiruvannamalai, Kancheepuram, Erode and Kanyakumari districts," she said. Traders and farmers will get negotiable warehouse receipts with which they will avail loans from the banks. The government proposes to set up modern research centres at Srirangam, Tiruchi, Tiruvarur, Erode, Arani, Vellore and Villupuram to ascertain the moisture content in paddy and type of grain.

A new training centre will be set up at Sholinganallur in Kancheepuram district at a total cost of Rs 10.31 crore to prepare officials tackle problems of adulteration. "The state has forwarded the proposal to the Centre for approval. After getting the Centre's nod, tenders will be floated for construction of the centre and state's contribution will be Rs 4.12 crore," she said.

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