Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ravindra Chavan distributing Diwali food packs to ration card holders. (Source:Twitter/@DombivlikarRavi)The Maharashtra government has decided to switch to offline distribution of its Diwali food packs to beneficiaries as the online process was getting delayed due to technical issues.
The decision was taken after a meeting of Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ravindra Chavan with the department officials. Chavan said, “on Sunday, we decided to start the offline distribution of Diwali food packs to ration card holders,” adding that directives were issued to authorities to fast-track the disbursement.
Chavan added, “Diwali food disbursement process was to be through online using point-of-sale (POS) machines which are internet-connected. However, it was noted that the online process slowed the disbursement. Therefore, directives were issued to start offline disbursement.”
Officials in the food and civil supplies department said, “the online process was delaying the distribution. As a result, the government decided to start disbursement of Diwali food packs to eligible beneficiaries offline.”
Earlier this month, the government cleared the distribution of Diwali special packs to 1.62 crore ration card holders so that people can get to prepare sweets at a much cheaper rate.
Under this scheme, the beneficiaries are entitled to highly subsidised food packs specially tailored for Diwali. An individual ration card holder is eligible for one kilogram of sugar, sooji, chana dal and one litre of edible palm oil for Rs 100.
The disbursement was to be completed by October 20 but the department failed to meet the target.