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Ration beneficiaries forced to scale hillock for e-PoS access
Telangana Government’s pet scheme e-PoS (electronic point of sale) to provide ration to the people to prevent irregularities, has resulted in hassles of a different kind. Beneficiaries in rural areas which do not have cell towers are facing lot of problems since the PoS machines function only if they receive signals.
Mahbubnagar: Telangana Government’s pet scheme e-PoS (electronic point of sale) to provide ration to the people to prevent irregularities, has resulted in hassles of a different kind. Beneficiaries in rural areas which do not have cell towers are facing lot of problems since the PoS machines function only if they receive signals.
Inhabitants of Adavi Ajilapur village of Devarakadra mandal in the district also face the same problem with the PoS machines. They are compelled to climb a small hillock Krishnarayuni Gutta which is one km away from the village, to get their thumb prints taken by the machine and claim their ration for the month.
The villagers accompany the ration shop dealer, holding the ration card in one hand and a bag with other hand, all the way up the hillock. After their thumb impressions are taken, the PoS machine releases the receipt, making the cardholder eligible to claim the ration. This may sound funny but it has become a nuisance for the villagers.
The ration shop dealer asks at least ten or twenty cardholders to accompany him up the hill to the location where the machine receives the signal. Out of the 473 ration card holders in the village, only one hundred persons could claim ration during the last one week. Pratap, a ration shop dealer says that he had to take 20 to 30 people up the hill to get the signal for the PoS. He appealed to the government to provide at least WiFi to make the PoS work.
At times, when the PoS do not get the signal, the villagers have to return home empty-handed and try their luck some other day. Chandrakala and Narasimhulu expressed anger over the delay of over one week to get the ration due to the PoS machines not getting the signals.
This is not an isolated case. At least ten villages in Devarakadra and Koilakonda mandals face the same problem. The network problem is severe in villages like Gaddegudem, Koilsagar, Manyamkonda, Venkatayapalli, Chinnarajamur and Hajilapur. This is a problem not only for the ration cardholders but also to the pensioners. Mahbub Ali and Srinivasulu of Adavi Ajilapur appealed to the government to improve the network facilities in these villages so that the villagers are not inconvenienced.
By V Narender Chary
