Thiruvananthapuram: Civil supplies minister P. Thilothaman has called a meeting with ration dealers to end their strike at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
The dealers across the state began an indefinite strike on Monday alleging the state government's failure to meet their demands.
They included the implementation of the improvised remuneration package offered by the CM in May 2017, making available E-POS machines to all and computerisation outlets, ensuring that their stocks are replenished before alerting cardholders through SMSs, inclusion of all deserving cardholders on the priority list, and excluding all dealers from income tax.
The LDF government had earlier threatened to hand over the PDS shops to Kudumbashree, the all-women self-help groups.
The food department has also directed officials to enforce the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) if necessary, in case the shutdown goes on indefinitely.
The traders, who have been refusing to stock up goods since November 1 and over 14,000 ration shops downed shutters from Monday.
