Chennai: Over 3,000 mosques in Tamil Nadu will get 4,900 tonnes of free rice for preparation of gruel during the fasting month of Ramzan starting later this month. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palniswami has given the approval for the supply of rice to the mosques for its use during the holy month.
The state government would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 12.60 crore for this allocation, an official release said. The scheme was started by late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and has been well-received by the Muslim community, it said.
Subsequently, pleas were made from various quarters for supply of rice this year too. Palaniswami has directed that the necessary approvals for the supply of rice to various mosques be given and the district collectors have been asked to do the same after verifying documents, the release said.
The AIADMK’s mouthpiece ‘Dr Namadhu MGR’ in its edition in 2015 had said a Pakistani TV channel had welcomed the scheme during that year and suggested the same be implemented in its country.
“A Pakistan television channel ‘SAMAA’ has aired a news about chief minister Jayalalithaa’s scheme of free rice to make gruel during the holy month of Ramzan and it wanted its government to emulate it,” the party’s mouthpiece had said.
PTI