The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : At grievance meetings, officials do their utmost

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Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

At grievance meetings, officials do their utmost

Staff Reporter

—Photo: V.Ganesan

VOICING CONCERN: Residents interacting with officials at a civil supplies grievance meeting in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: Hundreds of people made representations for deletion and addition of their names, change of address, door number and age, and issue of new ration cards at grievance redress meetings organised in 14 civil supplies zones in and around the city on Saturday.

The meetings are held in the zones every second Saturday. Officials of the Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department, the Cooperatives Department and the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation participated. Many grievances were redressed on the spot.

According to officials, action was taken on most of the petitions made last month.

However, action on petitions seeking new cards in some zones was yet to be taken.

“Last month, we received 53 petitions, and 46 have been addressed. Only seven petitions seeking new cards are pending for want of evidence,” says an official at one of the meetings.

An official of the Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department says: “We have the will to address all problems of the people. But we do not have adequate manpower. However, with the available manpower, we are trying our best to help the cardholders.”

Officials are not always able to help complainants, even if they wish to.

J.S. Santha Bai was trying to get her name included in her family card for the past three years.

“My son, who is no more, had deliberately excluded my name from the card some years ago,” she says. Now this 56-year-old woman wants a family card, as her daughter-in-law had left her house after her husband’s death.

The officials say they are unable to help her out.

“She will get a card only after the new enumeration six months later,” says an official. The officials say they are worried about the legal implications of taking action to help the woman.

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