State issues guidelines for Duare Ration scheme

Kolkata: The state Food and Supplies department has instructed the ration dealers to divide all beneficiaries under his jurisdiction into 16 clusters and designate a fixed day of a week of each month for distribution of foodgrains at each cluster.

The department on Saturday brought out a detailed guideline in connection with the piloting of Duare Ration (Ration at Doorstep) a scheme which is slated to begin from mid September.

"The pilot project will begin in 15 per cent of the ration shops across the state," Food and Supplies minister Rathin Ghosh said.

As per guidelines, the Duare Ration mode would be done on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from first till fourth week of every month.

"Our plan is to have a fixed distribution day in a month from 1st Tuesday till 4th Friday for all the 16 clusters. Dates of the month may vary but day must be kept the same for each cluster during upcoming months," a senior official of the department said.

All Saturdays will be earmarked for distribution from the ration shops so that people who have been missed or have the desire to collect food grains from the shop due to any urgent reason can do so.

The second half of Sunday would be reserved to distribute food grains in Duare Ration mode for clusters which may have been missed due to holidays or inclement weather

conditions.

Entire ration for one month period should be delivered to the beneficiary at one go.

In clusters where the number of beneficiaries are over 1,000, two e-pos machines will be provided for transaction during delivery so that there is little problem in coverage.

"We are considering provision of additional commission to the dealers for distribution of food grains under Duare Ration from the date of piloting of the concerned ration shop. Financial support in the form of subsidy for procurement of vehicles to implement the programme is also under active consideration," the official

added.