India, a country where a huge majority of people, after passing almost 65 years of independence, still struggle every day for earning a square meal. Public distribution system for food is one of the vital service which helps in survival of poor Indians. Public distribution system is also called as Rationing system in various parts of the country and also here in West Bengal.
A country obsessed with democracy, where human beings are only measured as ONE MAN - ONE VOTE, many promises given to general public after every five years. Irrespective of the political parties, each of them must have some new promises regarding the rationing system every time when election arrives at our doorsteps. We are now become used to here promises like Rs. 2 per kg of food grains for BPL (Below Poverty Line) card holders etc etc. I must say, many of them are also implemented which is a positive thing above all the negatives. But is there anyone who looks after about the clarity of this distribution process to observe that it is really reaching to the end user or what we call poor masses? I think there is authority to do so but as we are habituated to see, people who have power to work, do not work and poor people suffers and do not know what to do and what not.
I could not say anything about the distribution mechanism of between Central and State government and between the State and Ration Dealers. But I want to share something what I observed for last few months. I believe an open scam is happening in the process of food distribution from ration dealers to common people.
I live near the proper Kolkata metropolitan city area. Here, now a day’s APL and BPL card holders get rations every week i.e. 4 times a month. But in every month there must be a week when the Ration Shop will closed for the whole week for some unknown reasons. Whenever you ask questions regarding these you will get answers which are not satisfactory at all. Answers like “Delivery was not available”, “I was ill for the whole week” etc which are not convincing at all when you hear them on for last 6-8 months repetitively. As of when there is no news of food scarcity in the state or in the whole countries perspective. Where are the food grains allotted for that particular week eloped?
For last 2-3 months, wheat is allotted for APL 600 gms at the price of Rs. 6.75/kg per cardholder (price may vary for some paisa). BPL gets more as usual. And another lot of wheat is available for the value of Rs. 10/kg. This extra wheat can be purchase as of your requirement and wish. Here the suspicious process happens each and every time in many or most of the shops in the locality. You buy the extra wheat or not dealer will write them on the receipt. Say you have 4 APL cards. He will entry 4 * 600 gms of wheat (what you originally want to purchase) in the receipt or in the bill book. He will also do an entry of extra 2-3 kg of that Rs. 10/kg wheat (which you do not what to purchase). Also rise, oil etc if available on that particular week. After tearing the paper from bill book he will strike of the extra entries. After reading that much, you may think that what so suspicious in it? After all he strikes out the entry, so what is the problem with this guy? No, my dear friend, here is the magic. When he made the entry, paper or the receipt was attached with the bill book which recorded as the carbon paper was under the bill book. Now he can easily say that the card holder has taken the 600gms of wheat and also the extra Rs. 10/kg wheat for 3 kgs or so. Even he has the prove to show to the government or the authority concerned. I think ration dealers sale that portion of wheat and other products to the open market through back door. Other than that what would be the motive of doing that false entry? It is very much crystal clear. But saddest part is less education, observation and thinking is helping those dealers to enjoy black money over the years. Let us assume he has 1000 cards under him. Just think the amount of black money is being generated every week?
We have to prevent this immediately. If they have the guts to do this much openly how much they do under cover only god and black marketers may have the proper knowledge of that.
To prevent these things inspection or checking facilities must be there to observe the proceedings. More over there also need to have a computer generated billing facilities. To prevent scam printed billing facilities must have been installed. Same kind of things happens in case of kerosene oil distribution.
In case of kerosene oil distribution, distributors offer lesser amount of kerosene to the people. There are also many loop holes and situations arises which cause suspicion in peoples mind. Many people are silent because of less checking facilities. Also they don’t know the proper channel to complain and to whom to complain. Make it mandatory for every distributor or ration shop that they must display address or contact number of the office concern where people can complain if they are not satisfied with the service or they have any suspicion and question in their mind.
We have to stop and prevent this open loot of our national properties. These cannot be a problem of only a zila or the state of West Bengal. This is our national problem. Almost every one of us who visited their local ration shop has same or alike experiences at least once in his/her life. Our parents also tell us about how public distribution system was tempered at their times. So, it is an old problem of our society which now has taken a picture of an open scam. Let’s join hand and pressurize our respective governments to take necessary actions.
Thanks for reading.
