A novel protest was organised by women under the aegis of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) at the Collectorate here on Monday to highlight the impact of spiralling prices of essential commodities on the common man.
A mannequin of a woman with a kid on her lap and an empty bowl in her hand beckoning to the moon with a new version of the popular Telugu lullaby written on a placard, and another of a man holding a price list of pulses, oil, tamarind, and rice, which skyrocketed in recent months, were the highlight of the protest.
Addressing the gathering, AIDWA leaders said that the steep increase in the prices of essential commodities like red gram, black gram, cooking oil, tamarind, rice, and onion was making it difficult for the poor to have two square meals a day.
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The e-pass system, introduced by the government recently, turned out to be a curse for the poor, they said. The slowing down of the ‘server’ and computer link failures were resulting in the cardholders running around ration shops for days on end to get their quota of essential commodities. They were being forced to forego their daily wages to stand in queues at the ration shops. Ration was not being issued even if the fingerprint was not registered properly due to technical problems.
The e-pass system was also creating problems for the ration dealers.
They said that the Supreme Court had issued orders not to stop ration on the pretext of non-possession of Aadhaar card. But ration was not being given if the cardholder had no Aadhaar card or if the name was misspelt on the ration card.
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Quoting from surveys, the AIDWA leaders said that on an average 200 out of 1,000 cardholders were being denied ration due to some problem or the other every month.
The government was only supplying rice and sugar through the ration shops and other essential commodities like pulses and oil were not being supplied.
The AIDWA leaders demanded that the Public Distribution System be strengthened to ensure food security.