CHENNAI: Alleging severe work pressure, technical failures and absence of basic facilities during doorstep ration delivery, the Tamil Nadu Ration Shop Employees’ Association on Thursday warned that employees across the state may boycott the Chief Minister’s Thayumanavar scheme from July if the government fails to address their grievances before the end of this month.
The association said ration shop workers implementing the scheme were being forced to work under “inhuman conditions”, with oral instructions allegedly issued by officials directing shops to open by 7 am and continue operations till 8 pm.
Employees claimed they were left with neither adequate meal breaks nor even access to toilets during the extended field duty hours. Women staff, in particular, were facing acute hardship, the association said.
“Our staff do not even get time to stop for tea or food during distribution work. There are no restroom facilities when employees travel door-to-door for delivery,” association general secretary Dinesh Kumar said.
The association further alleged that repeated technological failures were crippling operations on the ground. Bluetooth devices frequently fail, servers stop functioning and biometric authentication systems often refuse to register fingerprints, employees claimed.
“Even though government orders permit proxy distribution in certain cases, officials insist on fingerprint or iris verification before bills can be generated. The system itself does not work properly,” Dinesh said.
Employees also complained that delivery personnel were often forced to wait outside beneficiaries’ homes for long periods until cardholders arrived. In several instances, they alleged, beneficiaries demanded that ration workers carry rice bags inside their houses after delivery.
The association said billing itself consumes considerable time due to server delays, while loading charges, unloading expenses, vehicle rent, driver food expenses and additional daily costs were allegedly being borne by employees without reimbursement.
“In many places, workers are also facing threats from cardholders asking why ration items were not delivered on time or directly to their doorstep,” Kumar alleged.
The Thayumanavar scheme, one of the Tamil Nadu government’s welfare initiatives, provides doorstep delivery of Public Distribution System commodities to senior citizens above 70 years and persons with disabilities. The scheme presently covers more than 21.7 lakh beneficiaries across the state through fair price shops.
Stating that the concerns had already been formally conveyed to senior officials and minister, Dinesh Kumar said the association was still hoping for government intervention.
“If the operational problems in the Thayumanavar scheme are not resolved before June-end, Tamil Nadu ration shop employees will be left with no option but to boycott the distribution work under the scheme from July,” he said.
When contacted, Food and Civil Supplies Minister P Venkataramanan said the government had taken note of the concerns raised by ration shop employees and that efforts were under way to resolve the issues at the earliest.