Ration shop dealers in Telangana to intensify strike

Hyderabad: Ration dealers are up in arms against Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s  move to implement direct benefit transfer for beneficiaries if they go on strike in November. 

Dealers alleged that the government was conspiring to close ration shops under the guise of dealers’ strike, which would affect 17,000 dealers and 20,000 workers besides affecting 2.70 crore beneficiaries. They threatened to intensify the agitation if government went ahead with the implementation of DBT.

Telangana Ration Dealers Welfare Association president Nayi Koti Raju alleged some officials of the civil supplies department we-re misleading the CM with false propaganda of irregularities.

“There may be few ration dealers here and there like in any other sector committing irregularities. It is not fair to target all the dealers,” he said.

The scope for dealers' resorting to irregularities has become almost nil with the introduction of online system in PDS and installation of e-PoS machines in all ration shops where every transaction in all shops is being monitored from Hyderabad. The charges of illegal diversion of PDS is only a false propaganda to  close ration shops," Mr Raju alleged.

He accused officials of resorting to irregularities by supplying 47 kg of rice to ration shop in 50-kg bags and diverting 3 kgs to the black market. When this rice is caught, they are accusing dealers of malpractice, Mr Raju said.

He said a public meeting of nationwide ration dealers' will be held on October 27 in LB Nagar which will be attended by All India Ration Dealers' Association vice-president Prahlad Modi, the brother of Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi.

He added that the association would finalise its future course of action at the meeting.