Action won’t be rationed against erring fair price shop staff

“With more than 1.70 crore PDS (Public Distribution System) consumers having linked their mobile numbers through POS (Point of Sale) machines in FPS, they have all been sent a message by the commissionerate asking them to send an SMS to 9980904040 with the message PDS space 107 based on which top officials would investigate complaints” officials added. 

“Linking of Aadhar and mobile numbers through the POS machine proposed to weed out bogus ration cards has obviously worked” officials said as otherwise removal of such cards would have been a time-consuming task. When consumers purchase commodities in FPS, they get all details on their mobile through an SMS. Consumers being asked to complain about shortfalls has resulted in officials receiving details on errant salesmen. 

When a shortfall is noticed for the first time, the concerned FPS salesman will have the commodities market value being recovered. Recovery will be five times the commodity value for the second offence and ten times the value for the third offence. 

Asked about salesmen complaining of under-weight of products when it reaches the FPS, officials said, “All goods received from FCI (Food Corporation of India) godowns are packed in 50 kilo bags and are weighed before FPS salesmen when they come to take and transport them to their FPS.” 

Public can list their grievances at monthly grievance meets organised in the city’s 17 divisions.