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Tribals facing tough time in getting food grains
The poor people belonging to the tribal community in the Agency areas are forced to wait till mid- night to take their grains from ration depots as the e-PoS machines are not working due to non-availability of telephone signals. They are forced to walk around five km through the hilly areas and are forced to stay there till they receive the signal in Kurupam and G L Puram mandals.
Kurupam (Vizianagaram): The poor people belonging to the tribal community in the Agency areas are forced to wait till mid- night to take their grains from ration depots as the e-PoS machines are not working due to non-availability of telephone signals. They are forced to walk around five km through the hilly areas and are forced to stay there till they receive the signal in Kurupam and G L Puram mandals.
Rastaa Kuntubaayi, a remote village in Kurupam mandal, has a ration depot, which is being managed by Girijan Cooperative Corporation, and distributing rice, sugar and kerosene to 513 card holders covering 10 villages around it. Diguvaguda, Thotaguda, Maripalli, Rajjili and Nereduvalasa are some of the villages which come under the depot. The locals of these villages need to travel minimum of five km through hills and streams to take their monthly ration.
The state government is strictly implementing an electronic devise electronic point of sale (e-PoS) machine to check irregularities and black marketing, diversion of grains from the depot. All the dealers are strictly ordered to use these machines and issue the grains after taking thumb impression from customers. The thumb impression would be recorded and it will be registered online.
These machines work with the help of cell phone networks. The e-PoS machines are connected with BSNL network in the Agency areas but unfortunately, there is no network and it is very difficult to receive signals in these hilly areas during the daytime. Now each card holder is required to wait for 15 minutes to complete his task. As a result, the people are required to wait till the availability of BSNL signals.
Unfortunately, sometimes, power cuts are also creating hurdles for the issue of grains. Now, the card holders are forced to wait till the night to get a good signal and to take their ration. Sometimes, they are waiting till 11 pm to 12 am. Salesman of the depot B Gouri Naidu said, "We are working day and night to supply the grains as the signal is weak in day time and we are waiting for late hours for better signal. "
Speaking to The Hans India here on Friday, P Simhachalam, a card holder, said, "We are losing a full working day to get grains every month. We need to travel through the thorny bushes and it’s a hard task for senior citizens. We are demanding that the government withdraw these machines in the mandals in the Agency areas and facilitate to get the ration through manual process."
By Koppara Gandhi
