Bandipora: The residents of Kanzalwan and Nyle, two remote villages in the Gurez Valley in north Kashmir, are facing hardships due to the lack of local government ration stores.
The villagers said that they have to travel long distances to get the government-subsidised rice, which often costs them a lot of money as the villages have no regular transport services.
“We have been waiting for almost 10 years for the Fair Price Shops (FPS) to open, but they are still shut and no ration is being distributed,” Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, an elderly villager said.
He said that they had to hire private vehicles every month to fetch 10 kg of rice from at least a 5 km distance.
“It’s well-known that the public transport in Gurez, especially in the peripheral villages, is almost nonexistent and we often pay Rs 200 to Rs 300 every month to get our ration,” another villager said.
The villagers said that many poor people cannot afford to travel and walk on foot to get their food.
They said that they have repeatedly complained to the local authorities, but nothing has been done. They appealed to the Deputy Commissioner of Bandipora and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Gurez to resolve their grievances.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Assistant Director of Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA), Bandipora, Bilal Ahmad admitted that the twin villages were suffering due to the unavailability of ration stores.
He said that the land on which the stores were built belonged to locals who had been promised adequate compensation at the time.
“The owners are not letting the department dump the ration there and have locked the stores,” he said.