E-Paper
Citing virus, PDS owners want biometric system suspended, threaten strike’ govt unmoved
PATNA Amid the surge in coronavirus cases, fair price dealers’ association in Bihar has demanded immediate suspension of use of biometric machines for authentication of beneficiaries taking subsidized foodgrains, claiming it is becoming a source of infection for the dealers as well as ration card holders
PATNA
Amid the surge in coronavirus cases, fair price dealers’ association in Bihar has demanded immediate suspension of use of biometric machines for authentication of beneficiaries taking subsidized foodgrains, claiming it is becoming a source of infection for the dealers as well as ration card holders .
The association has given an ultimatum to the government that if the demand is not met till April 30, all dealers would go on indefinite strike from May 5 onwards and deposit the biometric machines to officials concerned.
However, Vinay Kumar, secretary, food and consumer protection department, said all POS machines have the facility for contactless Iris scan. “This can be used for authentication,” he said, adding that there is no plan to exempt beneficiaries from biometric authentication.
Barun Kumar Singh, president of the dealers association, claimed around 11 dealers across the state have of Covid-19 in the last two weeks and a large number of them are infected. “Many a times, the servers are down and staff have to help the beneficiaries to use the POS machines, exposing them to risk of contracting the virus,” he said, while demanding an insurance cover of ₹50 lakh for each dealer.
“There are total 8.72 crore beneficiaries and around 55,000 PDS dealers in the state. On an average, PDS shops gets around 500 footfalls daily from beneficiaries. There are not adequate safety measures like sanitisers, soaps and PPEs kits for the dealers. The POS machines are also risky now in these times of Covid,” Singh said.
He said the association had already written to chief minister, chief secretary and food department secretary on the issue several times.
The fresh surge in Covid cases has once again put focus on the PDS system for providing subsidised foodgrains to poor families facing the economic brunt of partial lockdown and return of migrants back home.
“If the PDS dealers go on strike, it would badly hit the distribution of subsidised foodgrains,” said the association president.
There are total 1.79 crore ration card holders with 8.72 crore beneficiaries availing subsidised foodgrains in Bihar.
