Sale at fair price shops was disrupted on Thursday in Tiruchi and neighbouring districts as the point of sale (POS) machines developed a glitch.
Most fair price shops at Subramaniapuram, Puthutheru, Beema Nagar, Raja Colony, Woraiyur and other places saw a steady stream of cardholders on Thursday ahead of Deepavali. But the buyers had to wait for a long time. Many could not buy as the POS machines failed to read their biometric data, which is mandatory to make sale transaction. As the PoS continued to face glitches, personnel at some places downed the shutters and asked the cardholders to come back after some time.
According to sources, there are 1,342 fair price shops in Tiruchi district. These include 101 mobile shops, 19 shops run by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation and five shops run by self-help groups.
Inquiries revealed that most shops could not make transactions in the morning. Similarly, PoS machines in several ration shops in Karur and Ariyalur districts faced glitches.
On information, the officials of the Cooperative Department visited various shops to find out the problem.
A senior official in Tiruchi told The Hindu that it was a Statewide problem as the servers of the public distribution system were down but the issue was sorted out quickly. The fair price shops in Tiruchi district functioned as usual later in the day, they said.
Staff shortage
On complaints about some shops in Tiruchi functioning on alternate days, the official said the department had to give additional charge to salesmen of some shops because of disciplinary action taken against some personnel. Similarly, some others had been given additional charge as the regular personnel in-charge of those shops had taken sick leave.
The department recently recruited 200 salesmen to fair price shops. There were still some vacancies. Efforts would be taken to fill them shortly, the official added.
