বাংলায় পড়ুন
From the date of notification till the conclusion of the entire Lok Sabha poll process spread over about three months, the food and supplies department of the state will monitor the smooth functioning of the public distribution system across the state.
Even before the poll notification was issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) officials of respective district officials have been instructions accordingly.
“About seven crore people get rice and wheat at Rs 2 per kg. There is enough stock of rice and wheat but it was being ensured that there was no problem in supply. Those who had already applied for their digital ration cards, there is no problem of allotting them such cards,” said a senior official of the department. Installation of Electronic Point of Sales machines is in progress at different ration shops of the state so that there is a smooth transition from the conventional practice to the new mode.
While machines have been delivered to most ration dealers’ shops, registration of consumers have not yet been done in most cases. The department has decided to go full throttle on registration after the polls.
The Central food supplies department, in a notification earlier had made it mandatory to display a list of food items being sold and their prices. The list was also to complain the contact details of the official who consumers may contact in case there was any complaint regarding quality of the food being sold through ration shops. An official of All India Fair Price Shop Dearls Federation said that they were waiting for the state go-ahead before they can put it to implementation as they felt that it had been purposely done ahead of the polls to garner political dividend. He also said many instructions of the Centre had already been implemented at most ration shops for a long time.
