Rajouri: The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs authorities Rajouri have refuted news report appearing in a section of press on May 31, 2018 about alleged misappropriation of ration in this district.
“The news item is devoid of facts and intended to spread
misinformation in public sphere to malign the image of the department” a spokesperson of the district administration said.
In a written report submitted to district administration the
concerned officer strongly rebutted the news and termed it baseless, spokesperson said adding the ration is being provided to the consumers in time bound manner as per approved quota and there is no complaint from any quarter of the district regarding shortage of ration which is evident from the fact that no issue of ration shortage/ black marketing was raised in public outreach programs of the District Development Commissioner held in far flung parts of the district including areas mentioned in the news item.
Giving further details in the matter AD FCS & CAs informed that 487943.92 quintal of ration including 265066.71 quintal rice and 222877.21 quintals of wheat/atta under NFSA is distributed among the rationees from April 2017 to 31 May, 2018 whereas under MMSFES 87368.54 quintal ration including 48038.54 quintal rice and 39329.58 quintal wheat/atta is provided for the same period. He further mentioned that process of distribution of ration is under progress for the month of June, 2018. “The sugar which is only provided to beneficiaries under PHH category is regularly given to beneficiaries.
About 31034.88 quintal sugar is provided to the beneficiaries from April 1, 2017 to May 31, 2018 and process for sugar distribution for month of June 2018 is underway.
While negating the part of news that ration is dumped alongside roads while carrier charges being misappropriated, he said the ration is provided through Fair Price Shops which are geo-tagged and the carriage is being charged for actual location where the ration is distributed, thus there can be no question of dumping and distribution of ration on roadsides.
He further added that facts have also been verified from areas mentioned in the news item i.e. Taryath, Kalakote, Treru, Kandi, Budhal, Darhal, Thana Mandi, Manjakote, Sunderbani etc by sending special tea The public and concerned dealers have given undertakings that there is no shortage of ration in these areas and ration is provided on scheduled time.
AD FCS & CA, while raising questions about the credibility and authenticity of news item, said how come issues of such grave nature are not brought into the notice of any magistrate, SDMs, the DDC and police authorities or any other platform including online grievances redressal mechanism of the department established to address such grievances. He also hinted about role of some dealers in managing such fabricated news item as their licences were suspended for involving in malpractices of black marketing. He said this angle is also investigated upon and stringent action will be taken against such dealers for spreading misinformation thereby tarnishing image of the department.
