Months after they were completed at a combined cost of nearly Rs. 11 lakh, four ration shops near Tambaram are waiting to commence their operations.
Three ration shops were built at a cost of Rs. 2.75 lakh each in Ganesh Nagar, Kamarajapuram and Thirumalai Nagar of Sembakkam Town Panchayat and were completed in May and were even formally inaugurated. However, since then, they have been locked without any use to the beneficiaries who are hundreds of cardholders dependent on these fair price shops.
At Ganesh Nagar, there are two shops adjacent to each other. One for residents living in Ward No. 11 of Sembakkam Town Panchayat and the other, built at a cost of Rs. 2.4 lakh, for residents of Ward No. 19 of Tambaram Municipality.
Ganesh Nagar is on the border of these two local bodies and even the shop built by the municipality is yet to start functioning.
Pressing demands
Elected representatives of the town panchayat said there were pressing demands from cardholders for opening new shops as each of the existing ones was catering to the requirements of more than 3,000 households, leading to chaos and a long waiting time. Ideally, each ration shop should cater for not more than 1,500 cardholders, they said.
Though the shops were completed five months ago, cardholders continued spending long hours of wait at the old shops.
Enquiries with the Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection revealed that there was no problem with supplies of essential commodities or equipment.
However, the authorities were unable to take possession of the buildings and start the public distribution as they were acutely short of manpower.
They were hopeful of commencing operations in all four shops at the earliest, they added.
