Chennai, Nov 17 (PTI) Over two crore families in Tamil Nadu would get gift hampers comprising 20 essential commodities to celebrate the harvest festival of 'Pongal' in January 2022, Chief Minister M K Stalin announced here on Wednesday.

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The initiative, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,088 crore would benefit people having rice category ration cards and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in rehabilitation camps, an official release here said adding the chief minister has issued an order in this respect.

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The Pongal hamper, a cloth bag comprising 20 items would be distributed to 2,15,48,060 families to enable them prepare 'Pongal' a sweet rice variety.

The hamper includes raw rice, jaggery, cashew, resin, cardamom, moong dhal, ghee, turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander, mustard, cumin, pepper, tamarind, Bengal gram, urad dhal, rava, wheat flour and salt.

Similar gift hampers were distributed during the previous AIADMK regime as well for Pongal.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)