Public Distribution System in the State has been ailing since long time. The Minister himself agrees that complaints against the dealers in CAPD in the existing system come to him very often. He agrees that not being the employees of the Government the dealers cannot be subjected to punitive or administrative censure and punishment. The law does not permit that. Therefore these dealers, besides having a monopoly of sorts, have built up a system that helps them maximally reap benefits in clandestine manner. Black marketing of consumer goods especially kerosene, flour, rice etc has been reported on a large scale at different times. Some of the lower rung functionaries of CAPD have amassed enormous wealth totally disproportionate to their means of income. At the same time consumers are put to great physical strain to collect their rations from the depot. We have been raising this issue in our columns. Therefore we are glad to know from the statement of the Minister of CAPD and State Transport Departments that various reformative steps are being suggested by various quarters as well acting in close collaboration with the CAPD that the Government is going to take some crucial risks in this regard.
According to the Minister of CAPD, the Government intends to open as many as 7670 new food stores across the length and breadth of the State with special concern about the far flung rural areas. So far we had almost monopolized dealers with one dealer having more than a dozen or around that number other outlets in his hands. This has giving rise to corruption on a large scale. Pilfering with stores and black marketing the rations had become accepted norm with them. May be some of the officials and functionaries of the CAPD were accomplices of unscrupulous dealers in their shady deals. The Minister hopes that with the reformative measure that he has formally announced, there could be a radical change in the entire Public Distribution System. Measures have been taken to widen the storage capacity for the food stuff. Also streamlining of supply of LPG is on the anvil.
These and other measures are all appreciable. But the question remains that ultimately it is the efficiency of the employees that matters. In the new stores under contemplation in each distribution unit there will be at least two persons both of whom have to be educated at least matriculate or 10+2. These thousands of units will be manned by the new staff who will be the Government employees in practice. It has been the experience that any organization which is entirely in the hands of the Government often gets corrupted and becomes dead. This should not happen to the new seven thousand odd depots to be opened. Additionally the quality of the ration supplied, too, has to be kept under strict control. We may remind that large quantity of food grains and food stuff became rotten in the stores in Ladakh as these were left to rot for nearly four or five years. Even repeated requests to the authorities to order destruction of unusable stores were not issued for a long time and there was apprehension that even fresh food stuff place by the side of the rotten stuff would get damaged. Also there have been many complaints of shortage in the supply of foodstuff and other essential commodities to rural areas. People were even forced to bring out protest rallies about shortage of food stuff in rating depots. It will be the duty of the Government to ensure that adequate supplies to the ration depots are ensured through a foolproof scheme. The Minister has hoped that his reformative measure will ensure eradication of corruption in CAPD. May be with the introduction of new system or with addition of hundreds of new retail shops miscreants can find out new methods of corruption as they are used to grow fat on corrupt earning. The Government should have also announced what punitive measure it will be taking if such a situation arises in any part of the State.
We appreciate Government’s intention of overhauling the department and making it people friendly. The time has come when the Government and concerned departments should take a decisive step in meeting the challenge of peoples’ demand for efficient and competent Public Distribution system for the entire state. The idea of controlling fake ration cards is welcome but it has to be made operative and effective. The taste of pudding lies in eating.
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