Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s reluctance to favourably consider the fair price shop dealers’ demands despite their agitations for close to a year has come to be a puzzle to many. Besides, Mr. Rao has recently made a proposal for scrapping the PDS in favour of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). The government’s decision is set to affect a total of 17,200 dealers across the State.
Major demand of the dealers is payment of an honorarium of ₹30,000 per month, besides health cards, housing, and insurance.
Their contention is that the income from fair price shops has dwindled over the years, with the government cutting down the commodities being given through ration shops. The expenditure on shop rents, power bills, and payment to the clerk is far exceeding the commission, they say.
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The FPS dealers’ associations have given a number of petitions to Minister Eatala Rajender and Civil Supplies Commissioner C. V. Anand, who have reportedly represented their issues to the Chief Minister. Officials from the department feel that the dealers’ demands are negotiable.
“As per the Food Security Act, the commission they get on a kilogram of rice should be increased from 20 paise to 70 paise, which has not been done,” an official said.
The dealers did not complain as long as no account had been kept of the commodities. Trouble began with installation of E-PoS machines, as they deprived the dealers of unaccounted profits, the official said. If not honorarium, they should be paid the legitimate amount of commission over the PDS rice.
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There are two associations for the ration dealers, each vying for the tag of representing the highest number of dealers. Battula Ramesh Babu, president of one of them, Telangana State Ration Dealers Welfare Association, is in no mood to confront the State government with regard to the demands.
“We are not interested in taking the government head on. Instead, we will try to meet the Chief Minister and convince him,” he says, demanding, however, that the Direct Benefit Transfer move by the government be withdrawn. If not, the dealers would go on strike from December 1.
The other organisation, Telangana Ration Dealers Welfare Association, headed by Nayi Koti Raju, is up in arms against the government’s decision, and apparently called for a public meeting of nation-wide ration dealers under the aegis of the All India Ration Dealers Association on October 27.