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Hundreds of villagers took furniture from a ration trader’s house and set fire to those outside the house in the Murshidabad Salar area of Bengal on Saturday morning, alleging irregularities in the disbursement of the free ration.
Indranil Mahanto, the officer in charge of the Salar police station, rushed to the Punisha village as tensions eased. The house of ration merchant Halim Sheikh was ransacked in the incident.
Villagers alleged that they were getting far less rice than the government had promised.
Later, senior officials from the district administration also went there to restore order. They assured the villagers that action would be taken against Sheikh.
Rahim Sheikh, a villager, said: “Taken together, all members of my family are entitled to obtain 17.5 kg of flour and 35 kg of rice per month, but the distributor gave us only 3 kg of rice and 7 kg of flour. . It is accumulating rations for poor people. “
Villagers also alleged that Sheikh was giving them low-quality rations. Two days ago they organized an upheaval.
The turmoil started again on Saturday in front of Sheikh’s house.
“As of Saturday, measures were taken against 263 ration smugglers in Bengal and many of them were suspended. However, it is the opposition that is instigating people to reap political benefits during this crisis. The planned fire at Salar in Murshidabad was planned by Congress, ”said state food and supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mullick.
Bharatpur-II Community Block Development Officer Paritosh Majumder declined to comment on the incident. Other officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the ration dispenser’s suspension process had begun and that the police had detained him.
Congressman from Bharatpur (the town is part of the constituency) Kamalesh Chatterjee said: “The people in this town were not getting adequate ration for a long time. They were silent for fear of retaliation from local Trinamool Congress leaders. They exploded on Saturday. “
In a similar incident, hundreds of villagers staged a shake-up outside the home of the local ration dealer in the village of Jashoitala in the Lalgola police station area of Murshidabad on Saturday. They alleged that Manowara Bibi and her husband Rabiul Hasan, the ration seller, are giving poor-quality food grains to villagers.
“The ration vendor is giving very poor quality rice and that too in less quantity. It is also selling kerosene at a higher price, “said Abdus Samad, a villager.
Officers from the Lalgola police station arrived in the town and brought the situation under control.
