Erode: In this age of e-governance and so on, can you believe that about 58 out of 77 families holding ration cards in Kathiramalai hill hamlet under Andhiyur taluk in Erode district, need to travel 100-km to a PDS shop to buy their rations?
This may seem incredulous, but many of these families say they continue to put up with this unbearable physical hardship, as a ration shop is not located near their hill village in the forest area bordering Andhiyur in Erode district.
The hill-top villagers of Kathirimalai say they have to first trek down 10-km of a rough hill-track to reach the foothill to touch Kathiripatti village near Mettur in Salem district. Then to reach their designated ration shop, they claim that they have to traverse another 100-km via Mettur and Andhiyur to Bargur foothill.
While 25 of these families have moved to a makeshift place near Salem to eke out a living as daily-wagers, for the other 38 families buying rations is a real ordeal, they say. The travel is, tedious, expensive and once they reach their designated ration shop, they are not sure of getting all the rations they are entitled to.
Of late, these family heads hire a van to collectively go to the ration shop on a designated day after ascertaining the PDS shop staff's availability there through cell phone and buy the rations needed for a fortnight.
On return, they have to carry them as head-load to their hill hamlet from Kathiripatti. Hence, the villagers have been urging the Erode district authorities to set up a PDS shop atop the hill.
Responding to their plight, Erode district supply officer, C Jayaraman, told DC on Saturday that steps were being taken to reach the essential articles under PDS to the Kathirimalai hill hamlet dwellers at the nearest feasible point within the Erode district borders itself.
The district collector has instructed that for now the ration articles could be carted in a mini-van for the Kathirimalai villagers and distributed at a designated place near the foothill, he said, adding, soon, they will take steps to have a PDS shop near Kathirimalai hamlet itself.
