The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Move to check pilferage in Virudhunagar ration shops

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Saturday, May 03, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Move to check pilferage in Virudhunagar ration shops

S. Sundar

Administration to take direct help of consumers

Family cardholders asked to give their contact numbers
Details of purchase to be verified over phone

VIRUDHUNAGAR: The Virudhunagar administration will soon adopt a novel way to check pilferage of rice and kerosene from the public distribution system.

Phone numbers sought

The Collector, V. Chandrasekaran, has asked the family card holders to provide their mobile and landline numbers so that the officials can have a direct communication with the consumers.

“At present, we need to go door-to-door to make verification, which is not possible always.

Administration to provide telecom infrastructure

We will make use of the available telecom infrastructure for that,” Mr. Chandrasekaran told The Hindu.

Stating that almost every household has a mobile or landline number, he said the consumers without telecom facility have been asked to give numbers of their neighbours or local PCOs.

The numbers would be available in the ration shops as well as the taluk supply offices and the Collector’s camp office.

Inspections

Mr. Chandrasekaran said that he could verify the details of purchase made by individual consumers entered in the register at the ration shops during inspections by calling the consumer without having to visit his/her house.

“Whenever we have doubt about the unusual take off of rice from a particular shop or area, we can crosscheck it within a few minutes,” he added.

Curbing misuse of ration cards

Besides, it would also help to arrest misuse of ration cards by people other than the original card holder.

The Collector has proposed to make frequent random checks over telephone.

Fear factor

“We need to employ only a handful of people to get the details verified over the telephone.

This facility will help us in a big way as it would infuse fear among the erring salesmen and officials as the process of verification would be made simpler,” he added.

1,712 bogus cards seized

He stated that the district administration had taken up several measures to check bogus ration cards and pilferage of essential commodities.

As many as 1,712 bogus cards have been seized, the Collector added.

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