NEW DELHI: Staff crunch and non-availability of labourers due to migration has posed a challenge for the Food and Civil supplies (F&S) department, which is preparing for second round of ration distribution to non-ration card holders for May.
Officials said exodus of labourers from national capital during lockdown was impacting supply of ration to distribution centres, which was leading to chaos and manhandling of its staff by beneficiaries.
"We are facing serious labour crunch required for loading and unloading. We have trucks to transport foodgrains from godowns to distribution centres or fair price shops (FPS) but because of the labourers, who have returned to their native states, there is serious logistics problem. Most of the FPS are at the convenient locations hence are accessible. However, the problems are with the schools, where multiple trips are not possible," said a senior official of F&S department, privy to distribution of ration to non-public distribution system (PDS) beneficiaries.
During lockdown in view of coronavirus, the Arvind Kejriwal government has been giving free ration, who are not registered under PDS. It has issued 50 lakh e-coupons for free ration to non-PDS beneficiaries.To handover a fixed quota of free wheat and rice, 600 municipal and government schools have been converted into temporary delivery centres, where teachers have the responsibility to distribute foodgrains.
According to the officials, total strength of the department is 500 out of which 250 are available for field job, who have to visit more than 2,000 FPS in addition to monitoring and distribution at 600 centres. "Daily, about 100 employees who live in NCR are unable to report for work because of restrictions on inter-state movement or some health issues. Nearly 150 are data entry operators, who have to upload data real time. Sometime, they work till 11-11.30 pm. Only 250 are on the ground to execute large scale operation," said an official, who requested anonymity.
"Gigantic distribution operation is going to be a tough task due to crunch of labourers. There are already several complaints of people getting restless due to the delay in distribution or non-availability of ration. And our teachers and staff have to face the brunt. Many have been working for over 50 days without a break. Internal WhatsApp group is flooded with distress messages and they are under physiological stress particularly after the death of teacher, who was on distribution duty, and her husband earlier this month," said the official.