Mangalagiri: Government urged to restart ration delivery immediately

Mangalagiri: TDP MLC P Ashok Babu on Tuesday demanded the YSRCP government to revive distribution of ration immediately all over Andhra Pradesh in order to rescue the jobless poor workers during the coronavirus second wave.

In a letter to Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy here, Ashok Babu stressed the need for resolving the problems of ration door delivery vehicle operators and also dealers so that it would be possible to save 1.47 crore poor people from starvation. "The thoughtless actions of the government have thrown the ration distribution into deep crisis. Already, the poor people are facing countless problems in view of the deadly infections," he noted.

Ashok Babu criticised that not even 10 per cent ration was distributed till now this time. The free ration announced by the Centre came to a standstill for the last three days. The YSRCP regime's door delivery programme has badly hit over 30,000 ration dealers who have been extending their services smoothly in the past. In the name of door delivery, the poor labourers were forced to stand in ration queue lines at the delivery vehicles on the roads for hours togethers for the past two months losing their daily wages, he said.

The TDP leader said that the government spent Rs 539 crore for the mobile dispensing units (MDUs) given to over 9,260 unemployed youth. Another Rs 230 crore was being paid to them towards salaries. Altogether, Rs 769 crore was spent in the name of door delivery of ration. Eventually, these unemployed youth were turned into workers meant for handing over ration bags to the beneficiaries. They have been on strike for over four days demanding Covid insurance, vaccine, masks and sanitisers, pointed out.

Ashok Babu said that the ration dealers were unhappy that they were being seen as robbers. Since they were removed from their work, they were not ready to take part in ration distribution in this Covid-19 time. If there was any force from the Government, the dealers have also threatened to go on strike in the State. The dealers were upset that their login access was also removed and the e-Pass facility was given to the door delivery vehicle operators.

The TDP leader pointed out that the youth operating ration vehicles were facing life threat as they had to do multiple tasks involving public contact and touch points. In Vijayawada alone, three such youths died due to coronavirus. If they had to distribute ration to 90 persons each day for 18 days, there was a greater virus threat to them. Now, the officials were bringing pressure on the dealers who were also not willing to take part in view of the existing life threat, he criticised.