Thiruvananthapuram: The State Food Commission, Kerala, has ordered payment of compensation for people holding pink and yellow ration cards who did not receive their ration items in April following a breakdown in the server of the EPOS (electronic point of sale) system.
According to official data, 2.66 lakh people having the priority pink and yellow cards did not collect the ration items last month. The Commission’s order says that ration card owners who failed to receive their allocation due to the server problem have to be paid a food allowance.
The food allowance is calculated under the National Food Safety Act as equal to 1.25 times the floor price of the ration items a cardholder is eligible to receive. For instance, if the floor price is Rs 100, the food allowance would be Rs 125.
The free ration for each member of a pink card is four kg of ‘atta’ (wheat flour) and one kg of wheat.
For yellow card holders, the allocation includes 30 kg rice and three kg of wheat free of cost. In addition, one kg sugar could be purchased at Rs 21 and two packets of ‘atta’ may be bought at Rs six per packet.
Kerala has 41.43 lakh priority ration card holders, of whom 35.58 lakh have pink cards and 5.85 lakh have yellow cards. Among them, 38.77 lakh cardholders collected their ration items in April. The number of priority card holders who received ration in February this year was 39.65 lakh and in March 39.57 lakh.
In April, ration distribution did not take place for five days due to the breakdown of the EPOS system. Subsequently, the ration shops functioned in shifts, which kept many ration card holders away from the shops.
The State Food Commission issued the order to pay food allowance to people who did not receive ration items based on a complaint filed by former legislator Joseph M Puthussery.
The Food Safety Act says that District Supply Officers are the nodal officers to identify ration card owners who could not avail their food items. A report has to be submitted by the nodal officers in this regard with the Additional Deputy Commissioner, who is the district-level grievance redressal officer. Subsequently, the commission will direct the government to pay the food allowance to eligible ration card holders.
At the same time, cardholders who did not visit ration shops to collect their items will not receive the allowance.
Minister denies charge
Meanwhile, the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies in Kerala G R Anil refuted reports which said that ration card holders were denied items due to failure in the EPOS system. “Nobody has lost eligible ration items following technical problems. All ration card owners were given an opportunity to collect their food items. Every month, only 75-80 per cent of the total cardholders reach the shops to receive ration,” he said.
