PANAJI
The fair price ration shopkeepers will now have to keep their outlets open for the full day and offer the quota to all beneficiaries without taking a holiday till June 27.
The Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Household (Pink cardholders) will get an additional quota of 10 kg rice per person together of two months -- May 2021 and June 2021 -- free of cost under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) scheme.
This additional quota will be distributed from June 1 to June 27.
After the curfew was imposed many fair price shop owners were distributing the quota only for half day. Also, the shops were closed on weekly off days.
"As per the instructions of the Ministry, FPS owners shall ensure that the fair price shop remains open throughout the day for the full distribution cycle irrespective of the weekly off and that all the beneficiaries receive their entitled ration quota," states the order issued by the Director Civil supply Siddhivinayak Naik.
As per the order, the AAY and PHH cardholders who have taken the normal quota for June will get additional free rice.
The distribution of rice will be carried out strictly using the EPOS machine.
AAY cards are those cards given under Antyoday Anna Yojna to very poor families and Priority Household (PHH) are are given to poor families.
During the lockdown last year, the government distributed rice free of cost to these families for three months. However, last year there was no thumb authentication of the ration cardholder.
The fair price shop owners have raised apprehensions that this may increase the risk of the Covid spread and have demanded that thumb authentication should be scraped. The government, however, has insisted that thumb authentication with the EPOS machine is necessary for fair distribution of the quota.
