Ration distribution delayed again

New Delhi: Ration distribution in the Capital for the city's over 72 lakh people with a Ration card has now been delayed again for August even as the fair price shops part of the Public Distribution System extended their July distribution to well into August due to delays.

While officials had said in July that the delay then was due to the shops trying to figure out the new e-PoS machines as part of the One Nation One Ration Card system being implemented, they have now said that these errors in servers had been fixed.

Officials in the Food Department of the Delhi government have also told Millennium Post that as of the middle of August, no e-PoS machines were faulty and the system had started running smoothly.

According to reports, the Food Department has said that a total of 12,238 transactions were conducted under the ONORC programme in July, which allows people with ration cards registered in other states to pick up their ration from Delhi provided they have their Aadhaar card, which will be used for their verification, through e-PoS machines.

When this system was being implemented, several shops in multiple Food Department Circles were complaining of server errors. Some explained that a server error would prevent them from completing the process of distributing the ration leaving them with no alternative other than to wait.

This had resulted in long lines at shops at the time and many not getting their fair share.

In August, so far, officials have reportedly said that a total of a little over 2,500 transactions had taken place under the ONORC programme.

However, officials associated with running the fair price shops have said that some centres are yet to receive stocks from the FCI for the month of August.

The Food Corporation of India has maintained that it is allotting the decided amount of grains to Delhi and it had also said that in June, the Delhi government had picked up 100 per cent of grains allotted to it.