Srinagar June 28:(KNS)   The Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) General Secretary on Monday criticized the CA&PD department for non-functioning of ration depots at various places in Tral area of Pulwama District and urged the department to increase the manpower to manage all ration depots equally.

During a day long tour to village Saimoh, Mongahma and various other places in Tral, JKPCC General Secretary Surinder Singh Channi met various deputations, who apprised him about various difficulties, which includes non-functioning of ration depots, besides cancellation of AAY ration cards of below poverty line people.

The deputation also apprised Surinder Singh Channi about other developmental needs awaiting redressal for a long time and also drew his attention towards construction of roads, supply of drinking water to scores of far flung areas, seeking redressal of their issues.

Speaking on the occasion, JKPCC General Secretary expressed serious concern over the non-functioning of ration depots in absence of required staff and criticized the CA&PD for assigning responsibility of five ration depots to one store keeper, which is not a good experience and needs to be rectified to ensure that people get the ration at appropriate time.

It has also been reported that in absence of staff various ration depots are managed by those, who are neither employees nor hired by CA&PD, questioning this move and also asked the department to explain as to how these people are compensated, is there any policy framed by the department on this count, Channi added and said as that such decisions have the potential to encourage corruption in ration depots, which should not be encouraged.

I would urge upon the CA&PD department to ensure adequate staff to manage ration depots, besides restoring the AAY ration cards to BPL Category, who have been deleted from the list by the department for no fault of theirs and demanded their re-inclusion in BPL category.(KNS)