By IANS
Kozhikode (Kerala) : If you want to get rice at a discount now in Kerala, look for it at a cooperative bank. The state’s cooperation department has started selling rice through cooperative banks to hold down the spiralling price of the grain in the state.
Recently, the price of rice shot up 25-30 percent across all varieties.
The initiative the cooperative department launched state wide on Dec 12 evoked such good response that the banks ran out of stock within a few hours.
Par-boiled rice is a staple for around 30 million people in Kerala.
“There is overwhelming response for the programme. We are selling rice (Kuruva variety) at Rs.14 while in the open market the price is Rs.18,” Saju James, the secretary of Calicut City Service Co-operative Bank based in Kozhikode, told IANS.
“Our bank started selling rice this Monday. On the first day, we got a supply of 50 sacks (weighing 75 kg each) and the entire stock was sold the same day,” he said.
The rice is supplied to the banks through Kerala Cooperative Consumer Federation.
“Now the problem is we are not getting enough rice to meet the demand. When we give indent for 100 sacks, we get only around 50,” said James.
According to employees at the office of the cooperation minister, the department has recently opened temporary outlets in 2,206 banks to sell rice and the number of outlets will go up to 3,500 within a few days.
This is besides the 560 permanent sales points that exist under cooperative institutions.
In the first six days of starting rice sales, cooperative institutions sold rice worth Rs.50.7 million at the rate of Rs.14 per kg, officials said.
“It’s true that regular supplies of adequate quantity of rice to the banks have not yet become possible. But we will overcome this within days,” said Kadakampally Surendran, the president of the State Cooperative Bank, the apex body of banks in the cooperative sector.
“We will continue with rice sales for 2-3 weeks till price comes down in the open market. If the prices still show an upward bias, our intervention will continue. The Consumer Federation is procuring rice from Andhra Pradesh. The government is giving subsidy to the federation to supply rice below the market rate,” he said.
In marketing the rice, the primary cooperative banks also bear a little burden.
“We are selling rice in 5 kg and 10 kg packs. We have to spend on packing and have to use our manpower for this. But we have to bear this loss for the larger cause of the society,” said James.