ADILABAD:As all fair price shops’ dealers in Adilabad and Mancherial districts have been on strike for the last 15 days, civil supplies department officials are taking measures to distribute rice and other essential commodities to white ration card holders (BPL families) through Public Distribution system (PDS) with help of women Self Help Groups (SHGs).
Most of the dealers have not yet paid money to government to take their quota of stock for August. Because of this, there are apprehensions among the white card holders.
Adilabad district Civil Supply officer Thanuja told Express that only 201 dealers had so far paid the Demand Drafts to lift their stocks for August, out of the total 355 fair price shops in the district.
She made it clear that government was making alternative arrangements to distribute rice through IKP groups at places where ration shop dealers are not ready to call off their stir.
In the Adilabad district, a total of 355 fair price shops are there. 1,82,187 people have white ration cards including Anthyodaya cards. For them, 4,013 MT of rice is distributed every month.
Because of the ongoing strike, 40 per cent of the dealers have not yet paid money to the civil supplies department to lift stocks for August. In fact, every month the government allots quota of rice and other essentials online before 18th of every month, depending on the payment made by each dealer.
For the fair dealers, who do not pay the DD in time, the civil supply officials will extend the payment deadline till 30th. This fair price shop dealers distribute rice and other essentials from 1 to 15 to the beneficiaries.
Now, there is a break in this cycle, because of the ongoing strike. Adilabad district Ration Dealers Association president N Venugopal said, “We put the demands in front of government. Our demands are each dealer be considered as a government employee and get job security. If government fails to accept our demands, we will not distribute rice from our shops from August 1.”
In Mancherial district only 6 fair shop dealers paid DD to government to lift their stocks for August, out of the 424 ration shops. In this district also, the civil supplies officials are making efforts to distribute rice and other essentials to ration card holders with the help of women Self Help Groups (SHGs).