Coronavirus | Ration dealers demand status of ‘COVID warriors’
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The ration dealers in Kerala have requested the central authorities to contemplate them on par with the COVID warriors, in view of the work undertaken by them within the pandemic scenario, to increase the insurance coverage safety being granted to COVID warriors who lose their lives and to distribute the advantages with retrospective impact because the pandemic broke out.
The request, within the type of a letter to the Prime Minister, comes within the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 throughout the nation, and the chance the ration dealers are topic to face whereas distributing important groceries to the pandemic hit inhabitants.
The quantity of ration dealers and their helpers who’re hit by COVID is rising daily. So far 16 ration dealers/helpers have succumbed to the illness in Kerala. “We are engaged in a very important duty in this crisis situation, to ensure availability of food to one and all. Without this network, the COVID toll in the state would have been much higher. We are taking a great risk, just like the health workers. We contact the disease on the line of duty”, stated T. Muhammedali, General Secretary of the All Kerala Retail Ration Dealers’ Association. “We expect a higher risk in this second wave of the pandemic”, he added.
Around 80% of the ration dealers/helpers within the state are asthmatic, an occupational hazard, and therefore, the impact of COVID on them might be drastic. The ration dealers have despatched a memorandum to the Secretary of Food and Civil Supplies division to supply an emergency monetary support to the households of the ration dealers who’ve succumbed to COVID-19, from the Ration Dealers’ Welfare Fund. They have additionally requested for a compensation of ₹10 Lakhs to every of these households contemplating the large bills they encountered for COVID therapy.
The dealers have additionally advised to make the ration distribution guide, because it was in the course of the first lock down, in order to minimise the contact between the vendor and the patron. The use of Electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) machines for finger prints, is harmful on this scenario and needs to be discontinued briefly, they advised.
Above all, the dealers have requested for his or her fee for the final eight months of work, together with equipment distribution. “Many dealers have passed away without receiving the fruits of their labour”, Mr. Mohammedali stated, including that permitting the dealers a credit score for a minimum of 10 days, and offering the ration on the distribution centres as per coverage will cut back the quantity of instances a shopper have to go to the distribution centre each month.
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