PANJIM: As many as 25 fair price shops (FPS) owners including a cooperative society were issued show cause notices after the stock in their register was found to be not matching with the quota lifted by them for public distribution.
Director of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Gopal Parsekar said that during inspection by the civil supplies inspectors since April this year, difference in number of rice and wheat bags were found in 25 fair price shops. Some FPS owners were having surplus quota and some were found to be having less quota than what was supplied to them. As the stock in the registers did not match the quota lifted by them they were asked to reply to the show cause notices within 30 days after which some FPS owners paid for the shortfall while those having surplus stock was adjusted while lifting the next month’s quota.
In some FPS after checking the stock, sale register and delivery, the inspectors found shortage of more than 200 bags of rice and over 100 bags of wheat. Also some shops were found to be operating in offline mode. Many FPS had failed to maintain monthly returns.
Meanwhile, in view of Ganesh Chaturthi festival, the Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has supplied sugar to FPS for distribution to the Antodaya AnnaYojana (AAY) card holders/beneficiaries. Two kilos of sugar will be distributed to the AAY cardholders for the two months (August and September), through POS device.
However, many FPS owners and the cooperative societies are unhappy as they have not been paid transport labour commission of the free quota for two months. The FPS owners are likely to meet after the Ganesh festival and place their grievances before the department of civil supplies and consumer affairs, who they said, was turning deaf ears towards their grievances.
