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.
