The order suspending the ration shop salesperson for allegedly supplying poor-quality onions to the public was revoked within 24 hours after the ration shop employees’ union announced a protest against it.
As a result, the ration employees withdrew the protest that was scheduled for today.
Yuvarani is the salesperson at Fair Price Shop No. 1 in Maduravoyal, Chennai. This shop comes under the control of the Kanchipuram District Consumers’ Cooperative Wholesale Society.
Since onion prices have been high in the open market over the past few days, onions have been sold through ration shops, and onions were also sold at the Maduravoyal shop.
Some people who went there to buy onions reportedly complained that the onions were of poor quality. Following this complaint, officials who visited the concerned ration shop recommended suspending the salesperson, Yuvarani, and within a few hours she received the suspension order.
This information has angered fellow fair-price shop employees, who decided to take part in a protest and announced that they would hold one today.
We spoke about this with Rajendran, the president of the Tamil Nadu Government Fair Price Shop Employees Association.
“For ration workers who are already working for low pay, jobs like this are an additional burden. On top of that, it is the government’s responsibility to send quality onions. If good produce had been unloaded in the first place, there would be no need to sort it by quality.
But instead of doing that, they unloaded it as rotten waste and left it like that. We separated out the somewhat good onions from it and distributed them to the people. In some shops, people walked away saying they didn’t want it as soon as they saw these onions.
If that’s the case, if they’ve supplied poor-quality onions, then who supplied them? How can the seller be held responsible for that? If people are filing complaints, how can it be acceptable to immediately suspend the ration worker? That’s why we announced that we were going on strike across Tamil Nadu, and we also submitted a petition to the minister.
Maybe they understood, maybe not, but they have cancelled the suspension order. However, they have transferred that worker. Even that is unacceptable,” he says.
Since the TVK government came to power, issuing announcements and then withdrawing them immediately if there is opposition has become routine at the political and administrative levels.
People say the reason for this is a lack of adequate administrative competence.
Vetrivel was appointed as Chief Minister Vijay’s political adviser. When opposition arose, his appointment was withdrawn. A few days earlier, it was announced that information related to law and order could not be obtained through the Right to Information Act. When strong opposition arose, that order too was withdrawn.
If the goods at the fair-price shop are of poor quality, the solution is to supply quality goods. Wouldn’t taking action against the employee who sold those goods become a ridiculous matter? It is the officials who refuse even to think about this that bring disrepute to the government.
Let’s see whether they will at least be careful from now on.