VELLORE: The public distribution shops (PDS) staff are reluctant to visit houses to hand over applications for Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme allegedly due to the poor reception from cardholders in the first round.

“In many houses, we are not welcome and are bluntly asked when it is clear that we are not eligible due to various condition, why are you bothering to distribute applications for the scheme,” an aggrieved PDS salesman said. “In some houses we are asked to leave the moment we say we are from the local ration shop,” he added.

“The sales personnel have no alternative as they alone can identify the consumers attached to their shops. So, they are working with reluctance,” an official said on condition of anonymity.

“Disgruntlement is equal in both urban and rural areas,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity. “I personally witnessed a consumer asking a ration shop salesman why he was being singled out for such an insult in a rural area,” the official said and added that “in Vellore town, especially those in the upper income bracket, who have ration cards, demand to know why sales personnel are coming to their houses when they know that they are not eligible.”

Drawing a comparison between the DMK’s 2021 announcement that five-sovereign jewel loans would be waived the official said, “Believing the promise made by DMK more than 1.60 lakh applied for waiver, but only 35,000 finally got the benefit. The issue is now in the court,” he said and expressed apprehensions that the Mahalir Urimai Thogai might also go the same way.