Now, state to allocate ration to dealers based on quantity sold in past 2 months

Kolkata: In its endeavour to prevent ration dealers from hoarding food grains and later selling them in open market, the state Food and Supplies department will now allocate ration on the basis of quantity sold in the last two months.

In the present system, the department allocates ration on the basis of ration card holders in each of the 21,000 odd ration shops across the state.

"The entire rationing system has now been made online and we have a comprehensive database of the quantity of ration that is being handed over to the beneficiaries from each of the ration shops across the state. In some ration shops we have found that all ration card holders do not avail of food grains. So we have decided to allocate the amount of ration on the basis of the amount of food grains handed over to the beneficiaries from each of the shops," said a senior official of the department.

The official, however, reiterated that if any ration shop can come up with proof that more people have turned up for ration than the amount allocated by the department in a particular month then we will make arrangements for allocation on war footing.

There have been allegations against some unscrupulous ration dealers for storing and later selling them at a much higher price.

During the last week of October the customs authorities had seized 175 trucks of wheat packed in gunny bags with FCI tags under the suspicion that food grains meant for public distribution were being illegally exported to Bangladesh through the Ghojadanga land port in North 24-Parganas. "The Enforcement branch is probing the case and we are not sure from where these sacks of foodgrains have come from. The entire seized staff under the instructions of the court has been handed over to the custody of the District Magistrate," said Parwez Ahmad Siddiqui, Secretary of Food and Supplies

department.

The entire consignment of the wheat loaded in the 175 vehicles is estimated to be around 4,500 tonnes.

A senior district official said that some people in the state avail of wheat from the ration shops and sell it to other people at a higher price or may even export the same to states where wheat is in demand.

"It is impossible for us or even the police to keep an eye on such people who avail wheat from ration shops and sell it to other places. But we can regulate the allocation of food grains from our ration shops through the online system that we have developed," said the official.