Hand sanitizers have not yet provided to ration cardholders by the Government of Jharkhand till now. They had been promised them on March 29.
Jamshedpur
By Abhinav Kumar
Ration card holders have not received hygiene products at a lower price from the ration shops in Jamshedpur despite the announcement by the Department of Consumers Affairs. They directed the states to distribute hygiene products including hand sanitizers and face masks through the ration shops at a fair price.
Adesh Srivastava, a resident of Telco area said, “No one is getting any hand sanitizer at a fair price. In fact, forget about sanitizer at a lower price as they are selling rice at a high price.”
A report by the Economic Times states that the consumer affairs ministry Pawan Agarwal has asked states to distribute hygiene products such as hand sanitizers and face masks through ration shops at fair prices and easy availability. Consumer affairs secretary declared that the state government has to provide hand sanitizer at a low price while taking a review meeting with states over video conference on March 21.
A report in Prabhat Khabar states that the Jamshedpur Deputy Commissioner has announced hand sanitizers at a low price to all the yellow and pink ration cardholders in the state on March 29.
Vivek Singh, a resident of Kadma area said, “When ration shop was asked for the hand sanitizer, they said the government has not yet sent any batch of hand sanitizer for sale.”
Rishav Tulsyan, a resident of Sakchi area said, “A good move by the government to provide low-cost sanitizer to all ration card holders but everything is still on the paper.”
The difference between yellow and pink ration card is people who are having annual income between Rs 15000 to Rs 100000 get orange or yellow ration card and people who are having annual income more than Rs 100000 get a white or pink ration card.
Rajdhan Singh who runs a fair price shop in Sakchi, said “The government has not yet informed us about the sale of hand sanitizer at a lower price.”
Yogendra Kumar Singh, the sub-divisional secretary of FCI Jharkhand said, “The first batch of hand sanitizer has been given to rural area fair price shops. Since the availability of hand sanitizer is less, we all are working on it, and soon all fair price shops will have hand sanitizers with them.”
Dr. Umesh Khan, general physician of Kantilal Hospital said, “Hand sanitizer is a luxury good for poor people. But during the pandemic, hand sanitizer is a necessity, and the government authority should plan properly and then distribute to the fair price shops.”
