One Nation, One Ration - My first experience ...

Hello Everyone --

Namaste :). Wishing everyone a very happy and safe Diwali.

Hope you are all doing well. In this blog, I will share my experience, as a first time visitor into a ration shop.

First of all, great HATS OFF to this scheme, "One Nation, One Ration Card".  My wishes to this scheme, to be more stable and success soon.

I never expected in my life that I will visit a ration shop, though I hold a ration card for a longer period. Ration card is one of the primary and unique identities in India, since this lists down all family member details. All other cards (PAN, DL, Aadhar, PP etc) are individual identities.  Ration card is unique and it displays your spouse and kids details as well.

Here is the story....  Last few weeks, my parents were reminding me that, I have to visit ration shop to activate my ration card with my thumb print. Hence I visited the ration shop.  First visit, of course and I was bit excited and prepared too. :)  Obviously I have to give up all my egos to go there, because people treat or look you differently if they see you in ration shop.  I don't know why, but this is how the society is.  Corona is killing egos too. :).

 

I visited the ration shop. There was a long queue. I just joined the queue as usual without using any influential factors. Since everyone wears mask these days, it is tough to identify others. :).  Queue did not move at all. 

In the above picture, the officer was very busy trying to activate one ration card for a citizen.  He was trying very hard for every transaction. However it was not working.  So, what was happening in the queue?

• Everyone was blaming the central government, all government officials, politicians etc, because the machine was not working and nobody was getting anything
  
• Everyone was blaming the officer and workers too. 
• I was patiently listening to all the complaints from people. Good to hear ground level feedback, rather than reading in papers or social posts. :)
  

After few mins, I was tired of listening to all the complaints. I stepped out of the line and met the officer:

Myself: Sir, what is the issue?.

Officer: Who are you?. What do you want to know?

Myself: Sir, I am waiting in the line for longer time. Everyone is complaining about everything. I just want to know, what is the issue?

Officer: This machine is not working.  What can you do here?

Myself: Why is it not working?  I see the display properly with proper message.

Officer:  Internet is very slow. Hence is it not working. It is timing out for every card.

Myself: Who is the service provider?. Did you raise complaint?. I have a 40 mbs connection at home. How can you say, connection is slow? Did you do speed test? :D.... lol..

Officer: Airtel is the service provider. I have raised many complaints. They are telling that, this is how it is and we need to live with that.

Myself:  Huh... Airtel?.. Are they available in our area?  NOOO.... Mmmm.. Would you please try my card?.

Officer: What is the special in your card?. Network is not working.

Myself: Sir, please try my card. I want to see the error message. :)

Officer: OK, please give your card. Looks like you are an educated person. I will try for you.

I handed over my card. I put my fingers in the machine. It worked like charm in the first attempt itself:)..... There we goooo.. ohh..hooo....

Suddenly, I became a little hero and everyone started looking at me like I saved their day. I told the officer that, everyone was pressing the machine to submit their finger prints. Please handle that very softly. You dont need to press the machine, just touch it, touch it very softly to activate or authenticate/authorize.

While this was happening, people were commenting: His fingers are very soft unlike us. We are daily workers, we work on roads, fields and finger print is not visible. One more person commenting, this guy has seen many machines like this, other one quoting: he has visited many countries and visa entries are always with these machines.

I suggested everyone to touch the machine slowly, softly and it worked for few more people too. However, yes, internet was slow. People need help, directions and suggestions in every e-PoS machine.

OK, whatz next? I checked the shop and it looks like below. Lots of sacks with one big weighing machine. Only one guy was fighting with these big sacks. i.e. opening, arranging etc. It was tough too.

My turn was over and I was handed over a slip like below. I asked, what is that?. Everyone smiled. :( One person was kind enough to explain the details and asked me to visit the next counter. Can you guess, what is in below image?

Boiled Rice: 35 Kg, Raw Rice: 3 kg, Wheat: 2 kg, Sugar: 2kg and One pack of tea. Wow.. Am I getting all these?. They told, yes, you are getting all these.   Government is giving these items for last 8 months. :)

I visited the next counter and he asked me, where are your bags?. I asked, what bags?. The person, told me, how will you carry all these?. 

I asked a question back to him: Dont you give these in small packs?. Why should I come with bags?. He smiled and said, inform this to government officials.  I excused myself from the gentleman and told him that I dont have any bags to carry these. He said, please go home and bring bags for all these. I said, OK and left the place.

I came back later to the shop with the bags and collected all these items. I still could not believe that, we are getting this much free stuff from government.

I would request everyone to visit your ration shop and claim all your rights. :) .. You will be amazed by the offerings from government. If you are not using your ration card, I am sure, someone should be using yours. But, with the finger print scheme, it is clear that no one can buy your stuff.

It is a good scheme. But, why it is not working and why everyone is complaining about this?.  It will make things more transparent. Anyone could get the reports or analytics easily. i.e. For one shop, what is the consumption by week, daily, monthly, who are all the consumers etc.

My observations and suggestions:

 1. Fixing all the internet issues or machine issues, could turn around things easily. Customer care has to step up and help every shop.  It is a good scheme. 

2. Sending all the ration items to home through home delivery. Everyone has to carry around 40 kgs. How a woman or man can carry 40 kgs of items all alone? Everyone relies on small autos or trucks to carry these to home. Instead government could deliver this at home.

3.  Packing all the items in individual small bags (10kg or 5 kg or 1 kg bags), so that it is easy to deliver and transport.  Lots of time spent on measuring these items in the shop.

4. Technology - Effective use of "Field Service" and "Customer Service" technology to deliver the ration items at home.  It is possible and this will bring more transparency. Customers (i.e. every citizen) can easily track, where is my ration shop, when are my items arriving, who is bringing and when etc.

5. Opt out like LPG - This is not entertained currently in proactive way.

OK Folks. It is our tax money. Think one more time about ration... Things are changing and we can be the ambassadors of change.  :)

We will catch up in the next one....

Nandri... (Thank You).