Vijayawada: The Government's prestigious project Chandranna village Malls is getting critics from not only the Opposition, even from ration dealers and public. Except cosmetics, oils, fast foods, all other food grains are costlier than the wholesale market. Allegations are rife that these shops are meant for providing sales in the rural market for Reliance and Future Groups. The pilot projects of Chandranna Malls have not a witnessed big number of customers. Few customers, who have come expressed their unhappiness about the prices of food grains. The prices are more than the price of wholesale shops in Vijayawada.
The government has announced a 20 per cent discount and in that, 12 per cent is for the customer and 8 per cent is for the dealer. Now, the tone has changed as the minister for civil supplies Mr Prattipati Pulla Rao has explained that this is an average discount which may vary from 5 per cent to 35 per cent basing on the material. The ration shop of Vidhyadharapuram has been modified as Chandranna village mall. As it is a pilot project, Reliance invested as much as Rs 3,50,000 to remodel the shop. They have supplied goods of worth Rs 2,00,000 to the mall. After opening the shop, Rs 14,000 is their sales figure for three days.
As the prices are higher than wholesale shops, consumers are reluctant to buy the products. Mr K. Gurunatha Rao, dealer of the shop said that, “The consumers are happy with the price of cosmetics, fast food (pockets), Cooking Oils. But, they are unhappy with the price of groundnut, red gram and so on. I informed Reliance on the first day itself, that these goods demand a premium, but, they do not care.” Reliance-packaged goods in the market have a higher price than wholesale and giving discount on them is of no use as it will not get cheaper. Ms D. Sivaparvati, a consumer said that, “We require and expect more food grains, but we are disappointed. This mall is nothing but Reliance Fresh. To sell their products, they have chosen ration shops.”
The Opposition has been alleging that these malls will eradicate PDS gradually. Now the civil supplies department has been providing rice and wheat in ration shops. Ex-MLA Malladi Vishnu has alleged that this is the doing of Chandrababu Naidu and family, as they share good relations with Future and Reliance Groups. They have handed over the rural market to them. Without any infrastructure, the Reliance and Future groups can sell their goods through Ration shops, but the common man is not benefitted.
The argument coming from the Government is that the rurals cannot have access to the wholesale shops or malls and have to buy from general shops, where prices are high. Now, they have all goods at their village itself through these Chandranna Malls. The Indian Chamber of Commerce lamented that the newly opened Chandranna malls is of no use due to high price of essential commodities. ICC Guntur president A. Anjaneyulu said that there is lot of difference to original market price and prices of essential commodities in the village malls.
He alleged that village malls is a threat to native kirana merchants and fair price dealers. Addressing a press meet at Guntur on Thursday Mr Anjaneyulu said that kirana shops will be severely affected by the village malls. He added that these village malls will put a huge financial burden on fair price dealers and there is no use as the prices are higher compared to kirana shops.
