Kerala ration crisis: 600 BPL families in dire straits

KOTTAYAM: The disruption in the public distribution system has thrown out of gear the lives of BPL families who have been depending on the ration items for survival. DC has come across several harrowing tales of the poor virtually starving for want of the required quantity of rice and wheat  in the ration shops.

K. Ajayan, 50, who lives at  Kunnakadu at Fathimapuram near Changanassery  along with his unemployed wife and three school-going children, is a BPL card-holder. He is surviving with a kidney donated by his wife after his kidneys failed and takes a heavy dosage of medicines. But he is desperate now as he lacks the necessary nutritious food owing to the irregular ration supply. They received only 10 kg of rice though they are entitled to 20 kg  and 5 kg of wheat. “We have no  income as my wife and me are unemployed and we cannot afford to  provide our children  adequate food,” Ajayan said.

Over  600 BPL families belonging to the Kurishummoodu- Parel church area in Changanassery  are having a hard time as they did not get their November quota of ration. Joseph Antony of Kurishummodu near Thrikkodithanam, a daily wage worker, says that they received only a minor portion of the rations. Joseph’s family comprising  his mother, wife and three children, got only seven kg  of ration rice and two kg of wheat for  November.

“This is when we are entitled to  24 kg of rice and 6 kg of wheat,”  Joseph told DC.  Most  families in the region haven’t received half the quantity of the ration rice. Joseph Kunju, a ration shop owner at  Kurishummoodu, said that they had not  received any ration loads for distribution. He was facing such a situation for the first time in the last 34 years, he added.