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Kurla, Kalina residents petition Maharashtra human rights panel on rations

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Residents in Kalina and Kurla have complained about not receiving rations regularly and some of them have sought the help of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission in the matter. 

They say that not providing the rations that they are entitled to is a violation of their basic human rights. Derrel Fernandes, a Kurla resident, says there are 195 ration outlets in Kurla and yet residents do not receive their monthly quotas. After more than 150 people voiced their complaints about this in the past few months, he initiated a process to collect their complaints in writing. 

"We distributed more than 500 complaint forms to all ration card holders. So far, we have received 52 complaints and we have submitted them to the state human rights commission," said Fernandes. Interestingly, some officials tried to persuade the people to take back their complaints. "They stopped doing this after we approached the controller of rationing at Wadala," Fernandes said.

Fernandes is among a group of activist citizens who have been working to sensitise people on how to procure rations. They have even conducted workshops in Kurla and Kalina, a couple of which were attended also by Sanjay Pande, inspector general of police appointed to the state human rights commission. Residents said that not only were they not receiving rations, but the ration shops would not let them register their complaints in the official book for this purpose. "Even the citizen's charter, required to be displayed in the shops, is not seen," a resident said.

Another resident alleged that some shops were selling ration supplies at higher rates over the retail counters. Anita Shetty, another activist involved in the campaign, pointed out that most of the ration cards did not have the necessary stamp that entitles a card holder to medical assistance under the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayi Arogya Yojana. "The scheme was meant for the poor, but ration officers initially refused to put the necessary stamp on the ration cards," Shetty said.

Mallikarjun Mane, deputy controller of rationing in charge of the Kurla area, told dna that pending cases had gone up as most officers were engaged in election duty. "We have had a meeting in this regard, after which we have been carrying out inspection of ration shops in the area," Mane said. "I have instructed the ration officers to try and provide ration cards to locals within two days instead of the mandatory eight days." 

Pande told dna the challenge was to educate people on their rights. "We have received certain complaints and are in the process of sorting them out as both parties are cooperating," Pande said.

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