KOLLAM: Ration dealers suspect an attempt to sabotage the 'foodgrains at the doorstep' programme under the Food Security Act. All Kerala Retail Ration Dealers Association said they were not receiving the commission for foodgrains distributed for the past five months. They have warned of a stock boycott protest from May 1 if the grains are not weighed at the godowns itself before distributing to the authorised dealers. “The government failed in implementing in a transparent manner the doorstep scheme commenced in Kollam as a pilot project," its president Johny Nelloor said.
"There has been no consensus on the remuneration given to the ration dealers. The project is being sabotaged by wholesale - contract lobbies and benami ration dealers with the help of some officials. Our demands are not met. The Union government is also giving dealers a hard time as they fail to reinstate the state's quota."
The government also failed to implement the recommendations of a committee on the wages of ration dealers submitted in December, he alleged. Under the doorstep delivery, the government intends to undertake the distribution of rice from FCI godowns to the ration shops by storing it in intermediary godowns under the direct supervision of the civil supplies department, possibly evading irregularities in the distribution network.
