Assn says rice fed to birds because exchange not viable
All Goa Fair Price Shops Association General Secretary Gandhi Henriques displaying the bad quality rice received in his fair price shop.
Photo Credits: Vikram Nayak
VASCO
All Goa Fair Price Shops Association (AGFPSA) General Secretary Gandhi Henriques on Thursday afternoon hit out at the civil supplies department for claiming that they had carried out inspection in Fair Price Shops (FPSs) to see for bad quality rice and said added that he had received ten sacks of bad quality rice which he had fed the birds.
"I want to expose the position the FPSs are going through the last few years. We are facing a non-viable situation of running a FPS and we have received extremely poor quality of rice in our FPS, but the civil supplies director and inspector are saying that this stock can be replaced,” said Henriques, while speaking to reporters.
“Who will pay us the cost in replacing this stock because I have to engage labour, arrange transportation and take this stock to the godown and get it replaced and bring it back to my FPS," said Henriques.
Henriques claimed that no one from the civil supplies department had come to enquire with him as claimed by them, adding that he along with my staff have had to face issues.
“We can see around 150 pigeons near my shop in the morning and it is better to feed them than to suffer transporting this rice to the godown in Cortalim and back at my cost. I have already disposed 10 sacks of the bad quality rice to the birds already in this month's quota and anybody can come and see the situation for themselves in my FPS.”
“The civil supplies department must go to their own godowns and verify instead of coming to FPS to verify the quality of rice. Being the general secretary of the AGFPSA, I got over 50 calls (from FPSs) that they cannot handle their customers and I feel that this rice is not even fit for animals.”
