The Puducherry government has announced that all ration card holders in the Union Territory were given Rs 75 each, in lieu of two kg free rice normally distributed for Diwali festival.
Welfare Minister M Kandasamy said the Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has credited Rs 75 under 'direct benefit transfer' scheme to bank accounts of each of the families belonging to APL or BPL categories.
He said, in a release, that around 38,000 construction workers attached to the Welfare Board operated by the Labour Department have also been granted Rs 2000 per worker and the amount has been credited to the bank accounts.
Workers attached to the ration shops had been sanctioned a bonus of Rs 5000 for Diwali and each of the workers who remain unpaid for some months now had been sanctioned two months' wages, the Minister said.