Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: State Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass has ordered a departmental inquiry into the reasons behind the department not paying transportation costs to the fair price shop dealers of the state from 2008-2015.
Among other demands, the All Assam Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Association has been agitating for the payment of their arrear transportation costs for lifting commodities meant for Anna Suraksha Yojana and Mukhya Mantrir Anna Suraksha Yojana. A 35-member delegation of the fair price shop dealers’ association met Minister Das in his office chamber at Janata Bhawan today.
After the meeting with the dealers, Dass said, “I painfully observed that the fair price shop dealers owe Rs 11.25 crore in the form of transportation costs under the Anna Suraksha Yojona from 2008 to 2015 and Rs 7.21 crore under the Mukhya Mantrir Anna Suraksha Yojana from 2010 to 2015. I have ordered an inquiry to ascertain why and for whose fault the fair price dealers were deprived of transportation costs.”
Dass further said that the Central Government has already released Rs 180 crore in the form of a commission for the fair price shop dealers since February this year. “We have already released the amount for payment to the dealers. We will also release Rs 60 crore as commission to the dealers from the state government. The district commissioners will pay the amount to the fair price shop dealers of their respective jurisdictions in the DBT mode till November this year.”
Speaking to The Sentinel, All Assam Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Association spokesperson Gunjan Kumar Borah said, “We are elated as the minister admitted that we have not yet received the transportation cost for lifting commodities from 2008-2015. On our demand for a hike in the commission by maintaining parity with other states of the country, the minister asked us to submit a separate petition giving details of commissions being given to dealers by other states. We will submit a separate memorandum for that.” The state has as many as 33,168 fair-priced shops.
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