Kerala State Co-operative Consumers Federation Limited (Consumerfed) on Monday announced the launch of India’s first non-subsidised cooperative public distribution system - Nanma- under which 10 essential commodities including rice, sugar and coconut oil, will be sold at 20 per cent discount throughout the year.
Chief minister Oommen Chandy will officially launch the scheme on April 18.
The Nanma programme is the first phase of a project to introduce an all-encompassing cooperative distribution network to serve the consumers, said Joy Thomas, president, Consumerfed.
Initially, 2,000 Nanma stores will be started – 1,500 run by primary cooperative societies, 220 through the existing Triveni shops and 280 run directly by Consumerfed.
The federation hopes to expand the network to 10,000 stores in the next five years. Ration card should be produced to buy items from Nanma stores to prevent misuse of the system, Thomas said.
Consumerfed will run Nanma stores directly if it does not get 200-300 sft of rent-free space from local self-government organisations, cooperatives, government or quasi-government organisations. The federation expects sales of between Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000 every day at each store, which is expected to see an investment of around Rs 5 lakh.
