TIRUCHI: About seven lakh ration card holders in the district would benefit from the supply of rice at Re.1 a kg through the public distribution system, said Transport Minister K.N. Nehru. Inaugurating the supply of the subsidised rice at a ration shop at Woraiyur here on Tuesday, Mr. Nehru said that about 12,000 tonnes of rice, worth Rs.28 crore in the open market, would be supplied to the cardholders through 1,016 PDS shops in the district every month. The move was one of the measures taken by the State government to protect the interests of lower and middle income group people in the wake of the rise in prices of essential commodities. Nowhere in the country that rice was being supplied at this rate, he said and pointed out that supply of 10 essential commodities through the PDS shops at Rs.50 would begin from October 2. Mr. Nehru said that eight sick Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks have been revived in the district. The 28 PDS shops run by them, which were delinked, have been restored to the respective banks. In order to overcome the shortage of manpower in ration shops, about 90 surplus employees from the Cooperative Department have been redeployed in the shops. Thirty-three part-time ration shops have been opened since the present government assumed office and new buildings have been built for 18 shops. About 950 ration shops have been provided with electronic weighing machines with a government grant of Rs.34 lakhs. The long pending demands of ration shop employees, regarding regularisation of service and minimum salary, has been fulfilled by the government, he said. Collector T.Soundiah, Mayor Sarubala R.Tondaiman, MLAs Anbil Periyasamy, K.N.Sekaran and M.Rajasekaran and others spoke.