Cracking the whip against errant Fair Price Shops (FPS), the Chief Rationing Office (CRO), Hyderabad district, temporarily closed 16 FPS outlets in the month of February, seizing ration worth more than Rs. 2.65 lakh, indicating the rampant misuse of ration by those running the outlets.
The raids by CRO officials resulted in the seizure of 42,745 kilos of subsidised rice, 3,271 kilos of wheat, 2,925 kilos of sugar, 625 kilos of tur dal, 330 kilos of atta, and 5,100 litres of kerosene from the 16 shops which were indulging in malpractices, showed statistics.
Constant checking also led to more than 100 FPS dealers meeting the Chief Rationing Officer of Hyderabad district in the month of February, during which they told the head that they would not cheat beneficiaries.
Statistics from the CRO’s office also showed that from June 2014 to February 2015, 30 FPS outlets were suspended, and ration worth Rs. 3.63 lakh was seized.
During the period, a total of 60,970 kilos of subsidised rice, 5,149 kilos of wheat, 370.5 kilos of sugar, 766 kilos of tur dal, 633 kilos of atta and 7,747 litres of kerosene were seized from those FPS outlets.
A senior official from the CRO’s office, declining to be identified, said that the department was determined to curb irregularities in FPS outlets, like benami transactions, forging signatures of beneficiaries, non-delivery of promised ration, among others.
“Once the complaint number is set up, we will be able to detect cases better, and deal with them. Also, out of the nearly 880 FPS outlets in Hyderabad district, only 45 have the Electronic-Point of Service (E-POS) system in place,” he explained.
The official added that once the E-POS is expanded to all FPS outlets, irregularities will reduce, as everything will be digitised.
