Tamil Nadu government owes its 116-year- old supplier Rs 30 crore

The country's first consumer cooperative society – Triplicane Urban Cooperative Society (TUCS) – which commenced operations in 1904 and has kept itself viable for more than a century and more is faced with a gridlock situation.

A report in a Tamil newspaper highlights its 'tight' position – an outstanding sum of Rs 30 crore from the State government for having supplied vegetables, groceries and LPG cylinders to keep the Amma canteens running. In these critical, cash-crunch months of lockdown, it is anybody's guess how the conditions on the field would be.

The many commercial establishments that the TUCS runs under its management too have been badly affected due to lesser footfalls.

The TUCS supplies goods worth Rs 5 crore every month to the government run canteens but has just been receiving a sum of Rs one crore as payment, leading up to spiraling dues of Rs 30 crore in the past few months. The situation is so dire, say sources,that the staff salary payments have now become a matter of serious concern for the Society.