Remove disparity in commission: Depot holders to Centre

Our Correspondent

Mandi Ahmedgarh, Sept 13

While representatives of the state governments have launched the One Nation One Ration Card scheme in the region, ration depot holders of the area have urged the Union Government to remove disparity in commission among various states adopting the scheme.

They (depot holders) have demanded that either they should be given commission on a par with other states giving higher incentive or be paid salary on the pattern of Kerala or Tamil Nadu.

Office-bearers and activists of the All India Fair Price Shop Dealers Federation, led by block president Balwant Singh Latala, Deepak Dehlon and joint secretary Karamjit Singh Arraichan, regretted that the Union Government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had failed to remove the anomaly in payment of incentive to fundamental units of the Public Distribution System.

“While we have been facing problems in the distribution of ration among card holders with meagre number of biometric-based data machines, we are among receivers of lowest rate of incentive at the rate of Rs 50 per quintal,” said Latala and Arraichan, maintaining that Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments were paying Rs 15,000 and Rs 18,000 per month, respectively, as salary to depot holders. The commission varied in different states substantially with Goa (Rs 270), Delhi (Rs 200), Maharashtra (Rs 150), Haryana (Rs 170) and Himachal Pardesh (Rs 143) per quintal.

As many as 26,000 depot holders were engaged in distributing food grains among beneficiaries in the state.