Even as Mysuru has apparently stood second after Ballari in the effectiveness of reaching out ration to card holders through the public distribution system, complaints of alleged exploitation of card holders have surfaced besides lapses by some fair price shops in the distribution to families in immediate need of food supplies.
The district administration, upon receiving the complaints, cracked down on seven such shops whose licences had been suspended with immediate effect.
Such complaints had come not from the card holders but from the local MLAs some of whom had petitioned to the newly-nominated Minister in-charge of Mysuru district S.T. Somashekar, who had a lengthy meeting with the officials here on Saturday. The two-month ration had been announced in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the government’s clarification on OTPs for distributing ration, some shops had been insisting on it for distributing the two-month quota of ration. Such complaints had received from Hunsur and H.D. Kote, which has a sizeable population of tribals.
“We have received complaints where ₹10-20 was collected from the card holders if problems surface in getting OTPs. The OTPs can be overlooked in this situation and the shops should not insist in case of a problem. The wrongdoers will be booked under the Essential Commodities Act, besides the Disaster Management Act, which is more stringent,” warned Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar.
There are also complaints against some shops which are accused of altering the weight and distributing less quantity of ration to gullible card holders.
The Minister said he had received complaints of ration weighing less than the stipulated quota.
“We have come to know how these shops alter the weight reducing the quantity of food supplies by 200-300 grams. They had been warned ofaction under the Disaster Management Act,” the Deputy Commissioner told reporters here on Saturday.
