30 Kgs of ration per ration card provided to the Kashmir Valley consumers by the consumer affairs and public distribution system (CAPD) is inadequate. Earlier people would rarely go to Ration Depots for rice as majority of people preferred Kashmiri variety. Now that the rates of Kashmiri rice have gone very high and is beyond the budget of a commoner mainly as a result of decline in its production, people now are forced to go for non-Kashmiri variety available at CAPD depots.
But for those who for various reasons separated from their joint families and acquired a new ration card are derived rice even from these depots. CAPD had issued around 25000 temporary ration tickets (TRT) for those who separated from the joint families. But for last several months these cards are not being entertained by the CAPD officials for unknown reasons. Why are such card holders being deprived of ration?. If a person puts up in a separate house from his parents, isn’t he/she entitled for rice from the ration ghat? Is not he/she a state subject? Why deprive him/her of ration quota?
IMPORTED RICE
Another vital issue is of depleting rice fields. The unchecked use of the agriculture land for construction purposes due to the callousness of the govt is robbing us of best variety of rice, the staple food here. Had the Govt acted and placed a blanket ban on the construction on agri lands, it could have helped not itself but people as well.
It could have saved huge sums by reducing rice imports from other states and also saved people from paying dearly for the low quality imported rice.
The govt should act tough and impose stringent punishment for violators. But as has been seen obtaining building permissions for agriculture lands from authorities has become so easy that it smacks of nexus between Govt and land mafias.
There is a question mark on the working of the SMC/SDA and UEED which issue NOCs for constructions on the agricultural land.
Mohammad Farooq Wani
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