Duare Ration Day 1: Several dealers deliver grains at people's doorstep

KOLKATA: The first day of the official launch of the pilot project for Duare Ration (Ration at Doorstep) was implemented in the best possible manner at Baranagar area in North 24-Parganas. The ration dealer, selected there, went to the doorstep of 35 residents with the entitled ration of the beneficiaries packed properly and used e-pos machine for carrying out the transaction exactly in the same manner as it is done in the ration shops.

A ration dealer in the Amherst Street area in central Kolkata reached out to 15 households with their entitled food grains. However, there was no doorstep delivery conducted in South Kolkata as the ration dealer there reportedly got panicked as a number of media persons started chasing him and his team as they set out for doorstep delivery.

The other ration dealers selected for the pilot project held camps at a particular locality.

"The Food Secretary has categorically said at the meeting in Khadya Bhavan that holding of camps do not go with the true spirit of the project," Biswambhar Basu, President of All India Fair Price Shop Dealers' Federation said.

As many as 28 ration shops, one each in 22 districts and 6 in urban areas, were selected for the pilot project after a high-level meeting at Khadya Bhavan on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by the state Food Secretary.

The department will collect feedback from the beneficiaries and based upon that another meeting will be held on Monday to chalk out a road map on further progress with the scheme.

The Federation has urged the state government to keep the policy pending till the prevailing pandemic situation. Dealers have also wanted the Hill areas to be exempted from this service because of topographical problems.

Trinamool Congress Chairperson Mamata Banerjee in the party's election manifesto had announced free doorstep delivery of ration in the form of Duare Ration project.