Civil Supplies Minister Etala Rajender has said that every district will soon have a toll-free number for people to report irregularities of any kind in the distribution of ‘fine rice’ in hostels and schools across the State. He appealed to people to be pro-active and watch out for such instances and bring it to the notice of the concerned.
At a press conference here on Wednesday, he said while irregularities of the past 57 years could not be wiped out in just a year’s time, the Government and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao were keen on having systems in place to ensure that every grain of rice or dal or sugar reached the students. He reiterated that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Government’s focus was on ‘welfare’ and no stone would be left unturned in the endeavour.
“We are working on fool-proof systems by leveraging technology such as Global Positioning System and ‘tagging’ the bags but still it is people’s participation that will ultimately decide the fate of such a good, student-oriented programme,” Mr. Rajender said, adding that it needed people from every strata of society to be watchful. On the part of the Government, booklets with the requisite details were sent to people’s representation right from village to the Assembly level, he stated.
Once the toll-free numbers were running, he said he would expect people to call and report on malpractices of any kind in the State, whether they were officials, hostel wardens, millers, brokers or transporters or Stage I and II contractors.