Finally, abundant groceries in district ration shops

THANE: In the last few weeks, TOI has been reporting not only about the official cut in kerosene supplies to ration shops in Thane district, but also about shortage in the stock of grocery items. But over the last few weeks, the grocery supplies have seen a rise across the district. The citizens now hope that this rise in supplies remains consistent, even post the Assembly elections.
The Ration Unit F is a huge territory which includes Thane city, Kalwa, Mumbra, Diva, Navi Mumbai and Mira-Bhayendar. There are also over 600 official rationing shops and over 15 lakh card holders, who benefit from the groceries and kerosene supplied from these shops. As the cost of food items has seen a hike in prices in the market, more people have turned to ration shops for their groceries. However, due to the shortage in the grocery supplies, many citizens were not able avail of their quota of ration. But after the recent shortage, the ration card holders will now get their groceries as per their card limits.
Kailas Jadhav, Additional District Collector, informed, "We are now getting a good supply of groceries from the state government. Though no reason has been stated for the improvement in supplies, I think this should continue in future."
With the ration shops seeing adequate supplies, the people are happy. But they only hope that this continues even after the elections. Raghunath Chikale, a resident of Lokmanya Nagar, said, "We were only getting about half of our ration in last two to three months. We are a family of six and it becomes difficult for us to manage with limited groceries. But we are now relieved that the supply has been increased over the last few weeks."
Some other residents, however, question this increase. "I think the rise in groceries is only for elections. This may not continue, post the polls. We also see chances of black marketing by the ration shop owners as the supplies are aplenty. We are also afraid that they might actually store this extra stock to sell it in black later. As the government has not been able to justify this increase in supply, we don't think it will take long for it to be curtailed again," Pramod Thorat, a resident of Wagle Estate, informed.