Fair price shop dealers, who have been conducting relay hunger strike demanding hike in commission, decided to continue the strike till May 27. Many fair price dealers are participating in the relay hunger strike at Sub Collector’s office in the city for the last couple of days.
As per the norms laid down by the Central government, fair price dealers should be paid Rs. 87 as the commission for one quintal of rice, but the State government was paying only Rs. 25 to them, claimed T.V. Ganesh, president of Krishna District Fair Price Dealers Association.
It was high time the State government revised the commission to dealers, who already were facing a lot of problems. For every 100 kgs of rice supplied, there is a deficit of 2 kgs in the supply.
Likewise, labour charges have gone up and with poor commission being paid, dealers were put to a lot of financial stress, he explained.
To make matters, the EPOS machines introduced were regularly hit by technical glitches, affecting the distribution at the fair price shops. Server connectivity breakdowns frequently and customers fume at the dealers for the delay in supplies, he alleged.
“A State-level meeting will be conducted on May 28 in the city and our future course of action will be decided after the meeting,” said Mr. Ganesh. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Raghuveera Reddy extended his support to the striking dealers and said the Congress party would stand by them till their demands were met.
