If all goes as per the Karnataka government's plan, people living in remote areas in Karnataka will no longer have to travel long distances to buy ration or depend on third parties to deliver it to them.
For, the state government has set a target of December 2021 to set up fair price shops in all remote areas that lacked access to ration shops.
According to a recent government order, the government has made it mandatory to establish fair price shops in all thandas (hamlets) gollarahattis and SC, ST colonies.
Speaking to DH, Additional Chief Secretary B H Anil Kumar, who headed the Food & Civil Supplies Department when the order was issued, said the government's decision came in the wake of several complaints about inaccessibility to ration in these settlements.
"As a result, it was decided to set up ration shops even where there are only 100 ration cardholders," he said. With the new ration shops, people living in these settlements will neither have to travel nor have to depend on mobile ration shops, waiting for supplies to be delivered to them. The shops will be manned by locals themselves.
The decision came out of a recent meeting of the state-level review committee on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
This decision could make life easier for thousands of ration cardholders across the state. At present, the government sanctions fair price shops only for a minimum of 350-400 ration card holders and hence those in distant colonies have to travel to nearby villages to procure supplies.
"While earlier there were mobile ration shops, even that has been dropped as biometrics was made mandatory for availing ration," said former minister N Mahesh, the Kollegal MLA who was part of the review committee.
Moreover, many people will have to let go of a day's labour to go fetch ration as they have to ensure their presence when the shops are open, he added.
According to government data, there are a total of 3,395 thandas across the state. Both Food and Civil Supplies and Social Welfare Department officials said no consolidated data was available on the number of SC, ST colonies at present. However, the Food and Civil Supplies department is in the process of identifying all such colonies that have been deprived of access to ration shops.
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