Ration dealers across West Bengal—facing public ire for over a month for corruption in the Public Distribution System—will launch an indefinite strike from Monday in demand of better security.Thousands of dealers in the state, including in Kolkata, were suffering from a sense of insecurity since the beginning of the agitation by the people in Bankura district on September 16, West Bengal Ration Dealers’ Association vice-president Mukshed Ali said.The four demands put forward by the ration dealers were: providing security; treating them as Government employees, if not then being considered as Government dealers with fixed commission; the goods sold under the PDS be delivered at their establishments; and new ration cards be issued by December categorically to those in BPL, APL, Antodyay and Annapurna sections.More than 50 dealers had been assaulted by the agitators in various districts mostly in south Bengal, while one committed suicide in Bankura district, Ali said.Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said he had asked Union Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Pawar to urgently review and increase allocation of foodgrains, especially rice, to the state in the interest of fair distribution to the APL category.
