Thiruvananthapuram: Supply of food items under the public distribution system (PDS) is all set to come to a halt in Kerala on January 27, with ration dealers announcing an indefinite strike from that day.

Existing stocks have already been exhausted in a majority of the over-14,000 ration shops in the state following a three-week-old strike by contractors distributing the items to the ration shops. Consequently, lakhs of ration card holders are likely to lose their January’s quota of food items.

Of the 94.82 lakh card owners in Kerala, only 46.76 lakh (49.31 per cent) have collected their ration for January. With ration dealers announcing their strike from January 27, only three working days are left for the card holders to receive their items.

Contractors transporting items from godowns to ration shops had launched a strike early this month after the government defaulted on the payment of their bills for three months prior to December last year and pending arrears. The total amount due to the distributors is over Rs 71 crore.

The amount required to pay a month’s bills is Rs 17 crore and even though the government had allotted Rs 50 crore to Supplyco - the nodal agency - for the purpose, the distributors received only 40 per cent of their bill amount for September, 2024.