Accusing the State government of weakening the fair price shop network by allowing corporate bigwigs to open village malls, general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Karmika Sangham V. Venkateswarlu on Tuesday demanded that food security to the poor should be retained and employment to the FP shop dealers and hamalis should be ensured by the government.
“Instead of strengthening the FP network by investing in it, the State government is roping in corporates into the supply chain in the name of village malls. It is spending ₹200 crore on 6,500 malls at the cost of the very existence of the same number of FP shops,” he said while addressing a press conference at the Sundarayya Bhavan here.
MNREGS dues
Wondering why the government was replacing the FP shops with malls all of a sudden, he said that the move would pose a threat to the food security of the poor in the long run, as the corporate malls would not match the government-run FP shops.
Referring to the delay in making payments to the workers of the MNREGS, Mr. Venkateswarlu said that the State government owed ₹534 crore to the workers for the last five months. The Centre, on the other hand, was stating that the funds released for the purpose were diverted to other works, he charged.
