Packaged rice for ration card holders
VIJAYAWADA: The officials of civil supplies department are planning to introduce packaged rice for the ration card holders across the State. The rice will be available in 5, 10, 15 and 20 kg packets. In the first phase, the packaged rice will be supplied through Chandranna Village Malls, sources in the civil supplies department said.Speaking to Express, B Rajashekar, special chief secretary of Civil Supplies said, “The proposal (to give packaged rice to ration card holders) has been accepted by the CM. We are still studying the best ways to implement it, so that we can avoid misuse to a great extent.”
As of now, rice is supplied in large gunny bags to the dealers, who give unpacked rice to the ration card holders after weighing the quantity of rice. Each person is getting 5 kg of rice and a family is entitled to 20 kg of rice.The dealers however, are allegedly misusing the provisions and cheating public by using tampered weighing scales and are selling the rice in black market. The decision to give ration card holders packaged rice has been taken to put an end to this misuse, official sources say. As per the decision, rice will be packaged in specially designed packets that will have the seal of the State government.
There would be packets weighing 5, 10, 15 and 20 kg. It is expected that this plan would be implemented from April, following a detailed study, a government source said.The ration shop dealers, meanwhile, have welcomed the new move to supply packaged rice to card holders through Chandranna Village Malls. “Except rice, we are selling only packaged goods under the PDS. Earlier, we did request the officials to permit us to distribute rice in packaged form for our ease and customer comfort. We are happy that soon the packaged system will be in place,” said K Gurunatha Rao, dealer of a Chandranna Village Mall in Vijayawada.