Members of the Shivamogga District Government Fair Price Dealers’ Association staged a protest in the city on Wednesday seeking fulfilment of their demands.
Addressing the gathering, Shanmukhappa Gowda, a functionary of the association said that Rs. 36 was paid as commission for the owner of a fair price shop for disbursing one quintal of food grains allotted under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
The expense incurred by the fair price dealers, including rent paid for the building where the fair price shops function, and the wage to be paid towards the labour has increased in recent times.
“But a corresponding revision of the commission has not been done. There has been a delay in upward revision of the commission owing to which the dealers were incurring loss. Instead of paying commission, the State government should pay monthly salary for the service rendered by the fair price shop owners,” he said.
With the objective to ensure transparency in PDS, the government had introduced radio frequency identification (RFID) supported hand-held billing devices and bio-metric based point of sale machines in fair price shops. He said that proper training should be provided for the dealers in this regard.
They also want the government to pay them a monthly salary instead
of commission
