Telangana: FPS dealers mull one-day strike

State Ration Dealers Welfare Association is considering going on a one-day strike against what they termed as the government's attitude in resolving the technical glitch in the e-PoS machines

Hyderabad: Problems with the lower-bandwidth e-PoS machines distributed to fair price shops (FPS) continued on Friday, leading to connectivity issues in the public distribution system. Only a couple of districts reported that the problem was solved.

Following the technical problem, the authorities extended by three days the 15-day window for the distribution of rice and other essential commodities — From December 1 to December 18, instead of December 15.

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The State Ration Dealers Welfare Association is, however, considering going on a one-day strike against what they termed as the government’s attitude in resolving the technical glitch in the e-PoS machines. “FPS dealers have been facing problems for the last three months due to the technical problems with e-PoS machines. A majority of the dealers are keen on observing a one-day bandh to mount pressure on the government to rectify the problem,” Battula Ramesh Babu, State Ration Dealers Welfare Association president and Warangal District FPS Dealers’ Association president told ‘Telangana Today’.

Vangapalli Ravinder Rao, Mancherial District Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Welfare Association president, said the FPS dealers had managed to disburse rice to over 2 lakh food security cardholders in the district despite the technical issues, mainly because of the extended deadline, for which he thanked the government.

In Nizamabad and Nalgonda, the problem continued to persist with people forced to wait for hours at FPS. Rice and other essential commodities could be distributed to only 70 per cent cardholders in Nizamabad district and that too with difficulty, sources said.

Fair price shops in Khammam and Karimnagar districts, however, said the issue was cleared and that they did not face any problems in the past couple of days.

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