Fair price shops face severe staff shortage
‘Only a few checks against hoarding being conducted’
By : c. s. kotteswaran
Update: 2015-10-20 06:43 GMT
Chennai: The Central government has announced a series of measures to control the spiralling cost of dals and has asked states to strictly monitor retail and ration outlets. However, in Tamil Nadu, several fair price shops face acute shortage of staff and sources say checks against hoarding are only a few.
At least, three top posts in the civil supplies department, monitoring over 500 shops in Chennai, lie vacant for the past two months, affecting distribution of sugar, dal and kerosene, said a source hinting that the post of Managing director/ Joint registrar for Chinthamani co operatives and the three posts of cooperatives sub-registrars who control administration, accounts and monitoring of 286 shops had also been vacant for some time.
A union representative, requesting anonymity, said the allocation of dal, kerosene and sugar is also affected in several shops in Chennai as there is no review by officials on the number
of card holders attached to a particular shop. In most of the zones, new card owners are added to the PDS, but there are no reviews due to vacancies, he said.
When contacted, a highly-placed official admitted there were vacancies due to employees’ long medical leave and retirements. “We have assigned other officials to hold additional charge of the vacant posts to ensure that operations are not affected. In case of shops, temporary staffs are hired for all zones covering Central Chennai to Tiruvallur district, the official said denying that vacancies would affect distribution of essential commodities.
“Every shop needs two staff. In case of a PDS outlet with more ration cards, a supervisor is also required but in reality, billing and weighing are done by the same person forcing public to stand in queue for a long time,” said social activist Aarani Sreenivasan of Periamet.
Political parties against dal price rise
Political parties in Tamil Nadu on Monday reacted sharply demanding the Centre and the state to bring down prices of dal variants. CPI (M) Tamil Nadu unit secretary G. Ramakrishnan demanded the Centre to bring down prices of pulses by banning online trading of agriculture produce.
Another reason for the steep hike was converting agricultural lands into real estate and industrial lands, he said adding parties, including CPI (M), CPI, MDMK and VCK would meet in Chennai on October 23 to decide on a common minimum programme on the issue.
Meanwhile, PMK leader S. Ramadoss in a statement said the public was affected for the past seven months due to increase in prices of essential commodities. The State should supply two kilos of subsidised dal varieties through fair price shops, he demanded.
DMK president M. Karunanidhi in a statement said prices of dal variants in the State had reached an all time high.