PANJIM: The fair price shop dealers/owners and consumer activists have decided not to attend the meeting convened by the Director of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs to discuss the formulation of a scheme for fair price shop dealers. They are boycotting the Tuesday meeting since, they were informed at short notice.
All Goa Consumer Cooperative Society and All Goa Fair Price Shop Owners Association general secretary Gandhi Henriques, on Monday, told O Heraldo that he will not attend Tuesday's morning since he was informed about it on Monday evening ie less than 24 hours prior. Similarly some other members of the committee too have decided not to attend the meeting, he said adding that they were yet to receive the minutes of the previous meeting.
In July last year, the government had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Secretary (Civil Supplies) Sanjit Rodrigues, IAS, to formulate a scheme for the fair price shop dealers of the State to make the business financially viable for the dealers. The committee is studying the functioning of the fair price shop dealers and difficulties faced by them so that the running of fair price shops business becomes viable for them.
Meanwhile, Anacleto De Souza, a fair price shop dealer from Shiroda, has written a letter to the Director of Civil Supplies stating that he is not in a position to lift his ration quota meant for March month onwards due to losses suffered by him in running the fair price shop. "I am no longer in a position to spend from my pocket to serve the ration card holders any more," he said.
De Souza stated that the commission was meagre and not even meeting the cost of transportation, labour, trade licence fees, annual weight and measure fees, POS machine rolls, power bills, etc. He said that the department was mandated under the "National Food Security Act, 2013," to ensure the door step delivery of food grains to the fair price shops but the State government had not yet fulfilled it.
"Fair price shop dealers are slogging day and night to serve the ration to Goans with satisfaction of one and all, with some decent salary. After all they are offering services to the people like any other government servants. I request the concerned authority to look into the matter of fair price shop dealers and do the needful as quickly as possible," De Souza said.