“What to speak of ration? Getting it has been so bothersome. Ever since ration has been disbursed through thumb imprint, it has gotten harder for us to get it. Sometimes we even have to go hungry in order to procure it. So, if we couldn’t go to work and didn’t get any ration, how would we eat in the night?” asked Anita Devi.
Anita lives in Cheda village in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district, which is 30 kms from the state capital, Lucknow. Hers is a family of five — three little kids, herself and her husband. Anita works as a labourer besides her husband to feed her family and is greatly distressed due to her domestic food expenses.
Anita’s kitchen runs largely with the aid of the ration quota that is being disbursed with a considerable delay these days. This delay is due to the failure of E-PoS (Electronic Point of Sale) machines which fail to operate due to network error and so Anita has to make multiple visits to the quota store for procuring her family’s ration.
As per the data provided on the website of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, Uttar Pradesh, the state has about three crore ration cardholders. These ration cards benefit about 13.36 crore people. Presently, over 80,000 E-PoS machines have been deployed across the state. So, 68,848 E-PoS machines have been installed in rural areas whereas 11,649 are in the urban areas. Lately, these machines have been causing problems for the ration cardholders.
It is not that the Food and Supplies Department is unaware of the problems in E-PoS machines. When contacted, the additional food commissioner, Sunil Kumar Verma, informed: “The ration distribution begins on the 5th of every month and so the workload starts peaking during 5-10 thereby reaching its peak by the 10th or the 12th day. In such a situation, the server crashes numerous times. We have recently upgraded our server to increase its capacity and we constantly endeavour to improve it. It is also advisable for the kotedars (ration distributors) not to attempt the entire transaction at one go. The ration can be distributed from the 5th to the 25th so the kotedars may disburse ration at any time during these dates.”
Anita, however, had a different story to tell. “I go to the store when the ration distribution begins every month, but fail to receive my entire ration at one go. For this, I have to make 4-5 visits, missing my work and daily wages for those days. I get Rs 150 as daily wage, but if I forgo work in order to procure ration, how would I earn? Many times, my family has to go hungry as I bring home neither my wage nor the rations.”
She added: “The quota ration which we get only after 4-5 visits, last us for 15 days. When it too finishes, we eat only once. If we send the kids out to play, they tire out and sleep without asking to be fed. When there isn’t any food, one has to resort to such measures.” When asked the importance of ration, she said that it was the basis of their existence and that her household runs on it.
Just like Anita from Barabanki, Anita from Neri village of Sitapur’s Pisawan block also suffers from a similar predicament. Sitapur is about 90 kms from state capital Lucknow. This Anita too faces the problems in ration distribution process.
She said: “The machine doesn’t accept the thumb impression anymore. The kotedar always makes us run after him for 4-5 days. Never before have we been so troubled in procuring the ration. I suspect that the ration is being siphoned off by the kotedar, and so all this is happening.”
One often comes across the irregularities in the Public Distribution System (PDS) so to render it more transparent, the state government has opted for its computerization. Under this, the kotedars are distributing the rations with the help of the E-PoS machines. However, the kotedars don’t seem much too pleased with the new arrangement.
Kotedar Ramdeen Rajput of Barabanki’s Gaura Sailak block complained: “The E-PoS machines are not only a nuisance to the ration cardholders, but also a great bother to us. Whereas previously, we used to be free in a day from ration distribution, with these machines, it has become a month-long hassle. Sometimes the network is weak, other times the thumb imprint of the beneficiary doesn’t match. On top of everything, people come under the impression that we do not want to provide them rations so we are being blamed and misbehaved with.”
(Virendra Singh from Barabanki and Mohit Shukla from Sitapur contributed to this story)
