Mokokchung, March 17 (MExN): Fair Price Shop dealers under Mokokchung district have stated that due to non reimbursement of transportation bills by the Government, its members were undergoing immense hardships for the last fourty days.
A press statement from one of its members, Lanumeren shared that FPS dealers have been diligently disbursing the rice under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and PMGKAY to the ration card holders without missing out a single month till date.“As per NFSA and PMGKAY schemes, the Fair Price Shop dealers are to transport and dispense the rice to the beneficiaries while the Government would reimburse the transportation/handling bill to the dealers on a quarterly basis,” he said.
However, the Government has failed to reimburse the pending bill incurred during the past forty-eight months i.e. transporting rice for 30 months (September 2021 – February 2024) under NFSA and 18 months under PMGKAY scheme, the press statement added. On several occasions, the dealers have met with the concern department officials to discuss the matter. However, except for verbal assurances, the government is yet to reimburse our bills, it claimed.
Currently the members were arranging the transportation out of their own pocket and such delay in reimbursing the bills is causing untold hardships in ferrying the rice and distributing it to the beneficiaries, the FPS member reported. Therefore, the FSP dealers of Mokokchung have demanded the concerned authority to fully pay/reimburse the pending transportation bills without any deduction so that “we may continue our service to the public without any hindrance.”
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