2,000 from district participate

The District Administration together with the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, had organised a workshop for owners of Fair Price Shops (FPS) of the district this morning at Kalamandira to create awareness on the bio-coupon system introduced recently by the Government to streamline issuance of ration to cardholders.

About 2,000 owners of the Fair Price Shops in the district participated in the workshop.

Briefing the participants, DC D. Randeep and Dy. Director of the Food and Civil Supplies Dr. K. Rameshwarappa, said that the bio-coupon system has been introduced in 403 ration shops which would be extended to all Fair Price Shops in the State gradually.

They advised the participants to shun apprehension over the system and co-operate in total implementation. They suggested linkage of Aadhaar card numbers with Ration Cards totally and added that out of 20 lakh ration cards, 17.5 lakh had already been linked with Aadhaar numbers. They pointed out that issuance of BPL and APL cards had been made simpler now.

The DC asked all ration shop owners to upload bio-coupon details to ensure easy and transparent process in issuance of food items.

The Fair Price Shop owners interacting with the DC sought an increase in their commission, more transportation charges for receiving the food grains and waiving off bio-coupon system for aged card holders.