Pune: BJP’s Shivajinagar MLA Siddharth Shirole on Monday flagged alleged irregularities in Pune’s food distribution system in the state legislative assembly, claiming that some ration shops supplied wheat and rice contaminated with cement to citizens.“Recently, a shocking case came to light where wheat and rice mixed with cement were reportedly distributed to citizens at certain ration shops in Pune. Such incidents are nothing short of playing with the lives of the common people,” the MLA said, while pressing for the appointment of a full-time rationing officer to bring transparency and accountability to the system. The MLA raised the issue after a recent case emerged in Dhankawdi where citizens complained of getting wheat and rice mixed with cement from a ration shop. According to the Food Security Act, govt should provide nutritious grains on ration. “Cement and food grains are kept in the same warehouse,” a resident said, demanding an inquiry into the incident. A food supply distribution official confirmed the incident and said, “We conducted the inquiry and removed the cement bags from the shop. There are 672 such shops in the city.” Shirole also highlighted technical inefficiencies plaguing the department’s digital systems. “The RCMS (ration card management system) website is often slow or down, causing delays in critical citizen services like issuing new ration cards or making corrections,” he said. Activists have long been pointing out the issue of registering new ration cards with the updated system. The MLA raised the issue as point of observation and later submitted a letter to the minister of food and civil supplies.Pushpa Waghmode, a domestic help, said she didn’t receive foodgrains from a fair price shop for two months despite linking Aadhaar with her ration card. “Last month, my name wasn’t on the list at the shop. Even after it was added, I didn’t get ration this time due to fingerprint authentication failure,” she said, expressing her frustration.Another beneficiary, Nilima Raut, said she did not get ration since Jan. “I took my Aadhaar card to the fair price shop. Even after entering details and providing with my biometrics, the data did not add up,” she said.Activist Shubha Shamim said various checks in place were impacting food security for beneficiaries. “The beneficiaries were initially deprived due to issues with linking Aadhaar to ration cards. Now, equipment like face recognition systems aren’t helping them either,” she said, adding that many beneficiaries lacked smartphones, making Aadhaar linking and authentication difficult. She advocated for exempting ration and anganwadi supplementary nutrition from face recognition systems.Pune district officials confirmed that there was no dedicated officer for Pune city and an official was given additional charge. “A regular post and charge will be able to monitor the issue properly,” said an official from the supply department.
