People in various areas of Srinagar complained of shortage of essential commodities and urged authorities to send fresh supplies without delay.
“We are suffering immense hardships due to shortage of essentials for past week. The authorities have failed to supply the ration for December,” said Abbas Ahmad, a local at Shivpora.
He added that that due to lack of food grains, they were compelled to fetch essentials from private shops. Inhabitants of Sonwar and Rajbagh have same complaint. They alleged that the ration depots were without supplies, forcing the people to face hardships.
“We have no rice to eat and can’t even afford to purchase it from open market at exorbitant rates,” said Ghulam Qadir of Rajbagh.
They demanded that government should take immediate steps to keep ration available at the depots.
Director Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Nisar Ahmad Wani said that there is no shortage of ration and it is being monitored regularly. “We have distributed ration to Shivpora, Sonwar and Rajbagh. There is neither shortage of stock with us nor we have withheld its distribution,” he added.
He said that even the ration for January has been dispatched to Sonwar on Monday. He informed that under national food security act (NFSA) persons holding gazetted or constitutional post are getting food grains in open market.
“Under NFSA, we are providing 5 kg ration and 500 gram sugar to per soul every month. May be the complaint has come from those who have to get ration from open markets. Rest, we have supplied the required ration to all areas,” he added.
Essential commodities shortage hit various parts of Srinagar
