VASCO
Criticising the State government's moves to shut down fair price shops in the State, the Mormugao Fair Price Owners Association (MFPOA) said several hundreds of people would lose their livelihood and sought a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for each fair price dealer affected by the closure.
Addressing a news conference at a hotel in Vasco on Tuesday, MFPOA President Gandhi Henriques said the Centre wanted to close down fair price shops as part of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and transfer it to the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism.
"There are 53 fair price shops in Mormugao and each shop has two employees. There are about 535 fair price shops across the State. This means, the government will displace the livelihood of 535 families directly and about 1,000 employees of fair price shop indirectly," he said.
"We have been selling oil, sugar, wheat, rice and kerosene for several years for a margin of 20 paise per kg. Though kerosene was discontinued and number of ration cards declined, we continued to serve the government almost on no-profit, no-loss basis. It was only recently that Director Vikas Gaunekar increased our commission from 20 paise to Rs 2."
"The government has taken a decision to discontinue fair price shops, but does not talk how to handle the displaced fair price shop owners and their employees. We are waiting for the government to spell out its plans on how it would handle our situation," Henriques added.
Another member, Rama Honnaverkar said the DBT mechanism was tried in Mangalore. "When money was transferred to the poor citizens' account, many husbands withdrew the amount and wasted it on alcohol and the family was left with no money to buy any ration. I request the government not to create such a situation in Goa," said Honnaverkar.
"We have no objection if the government goes ahead with the decision of discontinuing fair price shops provided they pay a lump sum amount of Rs 25 lakh per society so that we can take care of our families at this stage," he added.
Other fair price shop owners said they have been operating fair price shops for as long as 35 years now and said it would be virtually impossible for them to look out for other means of employment.
Criticising the State government's moves to shut down fair price shops in the State, the Mormugao Fair Price Owners Association (MFPOA) said several hundreds of people would lose their livelihood and sought a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for each fair price dealer affected by the closure.
Addressing a news conference at a hotel in Vasco on Tuesday, MFPOA President Gandhi Henriques said the Centre wanted to close down fair price shops as part of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and transfer it to the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism.
"There are 53 fair price shops in Mormugao and each shop has two employees. There are about 535 fair price shops across the State. This means, the government will displace the livelihood of 535 families directly and about 1,000 employees of fair price shop indirectly," he said.
"We have been selling oil, sugar, wheat, rice and kerosene for several years for a margin of 20 paise per kg. Though kerosene was discontinued and number of ration cards declined, we continued to serve the government almost on no-profit, no-loss basis. It was only recently that Director Vikas Gaunekar increased our commission from 20 paise to Rs 2."
"The government has taken a decision to discontinue fair price shops, but does not talk how to handle the displaced fair price shop owners and their employees. We are waiting for the government to spell out its plans on how it would handle our situation," Henriques added.
Another member, Rama Honnaverkar said the DBT mechanism was tried in Mangalore. "When money was transferred to the poor citizens' account, many husbands withdrew the amount and wasted it on alcohol and the family was left with no money to buy any ration. I request the government not to create such a situation in Goa," said Honnaverkar.
"We have no objection if the government goes ahead with the decision of discontinuing fair price shops provided they pay a lump sum amount of Rs 25 lakh per society so that we can take care of our families at this stage," he added.
Other fair price shop owners said they have been operating fair price shops for as long as 35 years now and said it would be virtually impossible for them to look out for other means of employment.
