No network, villagers climb hilltops to get ration
: In March, it was reported that people living in Udaipur’s Kotra, were climbing trees to get ration. As the connectivity was weak, villagers have to wait on treetops for hours to get their biometrics verified by the PoS (point of sale) machine.
The situation is similar in some panchayats in Karanpur sub-tehsil, Karauli, where villagers are forced to travel around 3 km to reach higher grounds or hilltops to access network so that PoS machine can work.
The central government is trying to digitize the country and go cashless but PoS machines are not working in the absence of proper network connection.
The ration is distributed after scanning the person’s thumb by the PoS machine. But due to a weak network, the system is not working. Retailers have to climb up buildings to receive network.
Those living in Maharajpur, Toda, Rahir panchayats and others in Karanpur have been facing issues getting their monthly ration.
Karanpur and Sapotra blocks are located in the river basin areas and touch Madhya Pradesh border.
Karauli district supply officer Virendra Singh Shekhawat said that there are two panchayats, Toda and Rahir, under Sapotra sub-division, where PoS machines are inactive due to network issues.
“We have directed retailers to distribute rations among villagers offline. Retailers are still using registers to distribute ration as the failing network connections make it difficult to use the PoS machines,” Shekhawat said.
The government had provided PoS machines to retailers to distribute ration under the Digital India mission.
Sarpanch of Maharajpur Raju Bairwa said that villagers have to run nearly 2-3 kilometre to find a place where the PoS machine can get the network. Retailers take them to top of buildings to having their thumbs scanned by the machine to distribute ration.
Vintosh Devi, sarpanch of Toda, said that the PoS machines don’t work. “We have been facing problems after the government implemented the online process,” she said.
In June this year, Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had to climb a tree in a remote village in Rajasthan in order to access the mobile network. He had then ordered the construction of mobile towers in the village. However, nothing much seems to have changed in five months.
BHARATPUR