The nationwide lockdown that was imposed on March 24, 2020 to contain the spread of COVID 19 has impacted 1.3 billion people in India. However, people like daily wage earners, homeless people and beggars have been the worst affected. Many are already running out of money to put food on the tables.
To tackle this situation, the centre and state governments have announced some food grains for free, apart from providing monthly food grains on subsidized rate. However, on the ground, ration cardholders in Mumbai are not even receiving food grains allocated to them from ration shops.
Nisar Shaikh, a resident of Govandi’s Baiganwadi, who would visit his area ration shop every month and receive 20kg of food grains including rice and wheat, thought that only 20kg was his right from the government. However, this month, he came to know that he was eligible to receive 40kg of food grains every month, including rice, wheat and pulses. He was very happy to know this because he was scared of running out of food due to no source of money during the lockdown.
Nisar is not the only one in Mumbai who has been deceived by ration shop owners. Alam Abdul Shaikh from Baiganwadi who works as a maid and earns ₹8,000 a month, also claimed that she had been receiving only 12kg of food grains including rice and wheat for years. Now, she came to know that she could avail 24kg of food grains. Her husband is suffering from paralysis. She is the only one to support her family financially. Due to the lockdown, she is running out of money.
“Sometimes I was refused to get food grains on the pretext of no ration stock in the shop. The ration shop owner talks rudely if we force him to provide us with food grains. He would throw our ration cards abruptly. Ration shop owners don’t respect women at all,” Alam told. She has five members in her family.
Non-profit organisations called Sultanpur Ekta Manch and Hope India Foundation in Shivaji Nagar are running a campaign to make ration cardholders aware about their rights of rations. They believe that almost 100% cardholders are receiving fewer food grains than what they are supposed to.
Free Rations Unavailable
The Maharashtra government has ordered all the ration shops to provide some free rations to cardholders. It is to make sure that poor people do not sleep hungry. However, Mumbaikars are denied of the free rations citing no stock of rations at the shops. They are asked to wait for a few days.
Reshma Bi from Govandi’s Shivaji Nagar went to ration shops at the beginning of the third week of April and was sent back empty-handed. “I was told that rations are not in stock. When I asked the shop owner when I should recheck, he rudely asked me to visit again in a few days. He refused to tell the exact date for the availability of rations,” told Reshma.
Reshma has seven members in her family. When asked about the monthly income, Reshma replied that it is hand to mouth. “We don’t have any source of income now because of the lockdown. If we don’t get enough food grains then we will be in huge trouble soon,” said Reshma.
Another resident from Baiganwadi said that some ration shop owners are providing free rations to some cardholders when they are pressurized. “We don’t know much about how the rationing system works. That is why we are asked to visit here and there which turned out to be no help. People who threaten ration shop owners to complain about the corruption are given free rations,” said Shahid Ansari who according to his ration card can avail 55kg of food grains monthly. But he has been receiving only 12–15kg. “I was asked to visit after 10–12 days for free rations,” Shahid further added.
Every ration cardholder said that they don’t receive bills when they visit ration shops to buy the subsidized food grains.
Charging More Than Subsidized Rate
Ration shop owners are not only giving fewer rations to the cardholders but also charging more than what is fixed (subsidized rate) by the government. According to the government, wheat is for ₹2 and rice is for ₹3 per kilogram. However, it is revealed that shop owners charge ₹18–20 per kilogram.
“I have many times paid ₹20 for one kilogram of rice and ₹18 for one kilogram of wheat. When I objected, the shop owners would tell me that they don’t have stock, that is why they are asked to sell rations at a higher price,” told Nisar.
Hakeem Khan from Sultanpur Ekta Manch said that it is a big scam. “First ration shop owners save food grains by giving fewer rations to cardholders and then sell them at higher rates to earn money,” said Hakeem. Hakeem Khan said that one of the ration shops is sealed in Baiganwadi because of a complaint of corruption.
The corruption came out when the NGOs started finding out, through the Maharashtra state government website, how much food grains is allocated to a family. “When we started checking various ration cards’ details on the website we found that almost 100% of the cardholders are not receiving allocated food grains,” revealed Ateeque Khan from Hope India Foundation. He is a teacher and social activist by profession.
Statewide Corruption
Such complaints are coming from across Mumbai and Maharashtra as well. Hindustan Times recently reported that around 20 ration cardholders from Kalyan’s Sanglewadi area also lodged complaints against ration shops.
Ahmed Qazi, president of Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), Kalyan, told the Hindustan Times, “Many shops in Kalyan refuse people their allocated quota of food grains. Some are turning people away without giving them ration.”
Hakeem and Ateeque said that they have circulated a video explaining how people can find out their monthly quota of subsidized food grains. After the video went viral on social media, they started receiving hundreds of calls from other parts of Mumbai and Maharashtra asking for help. “What we are now observing is that it is a statewide corruption. The government should look into the matter as soon as possible,” added Hakeem.
Ration cardholders should collect bills before leaving the ration shops after buying the subsidized food grains. This will help the cardholders to know what is their ration quota and how much they are receiving from ration shops.
The rationing officials were not available to talk on the same. However, Abu Asim Azmi, MLA of Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Constituency, refused to accept that it is a big issue. “Ration cardholders are receiving allocated food grains on the subsidized rate. If anyone is facing the issue can approach to my party members at my office,” said Abu Asim Azmi.
The article was first published here.