HYDERABAD: The move by the civil Supplies department to curtail sale of essential commodities at ration shops across the state to just 15 days every month is inviting wrath of Food Security Card (FSC) holders.While the civil supplies department officials maintain that the move was aimed at reducing black marketing of the commodities, many FSC holders with whom Express spoke to claim that they were unaware of the rule and also criticised the move of limiting the sale to just 15 days in a month.
Ration shop owners were not far behind in criticising the new rule which started in January this year, saying that while they have been asking for a raise in their commissions, the civil supplies department’s move will affect even their regular business.Consider this, as per figures obtained from the office of the Chief Rationing Officer, Hyderabad, out of the 5,56,211 card holders in the city, the number of people who bought goods from the ration shops in January, fell to 2,76,957 from the December figure of 4,80,989, which is almost 42 percent fall.
Due to technical problems with EPOS servers, the transactions get delayed, the card holders pointed out.
N Kalpana, a resident fo Banjara Hills said, “We have not been informed about the 15-day rule. Moreover, how can the government dictate terms like when should we buy goods. There is another rule wherein if the card holder do not purchase the goods for three consecutive months, the card will be cancelled.’’
When contacted, B Bala Maya Devi, Chief Rationing Officer, said that the 15-day rule is being implemented to put a break on illegal diversion of goods by ration shop owners.