Ration shop at KK Nagar gets a revamp

CHENNAI: After City Express carried a report on the poor status of the neglected public distribution shops at Kalaignar Karunanidhi Nagar on June 4, the Tamil Civil Supplies Corporation authorities have swung into action to revamp the building.“A day after the report appeared, two people were seen engaged in clearing the trees grown around the walls of the dilapidated building,” said N Udhaykumar, Chennai president of Revolutionary Youth Federation of India affiliated to CPI(M-L). Construction materials arrived at the venue for renovation works and steps are being taken to fix the ceilings, he added. According to officials of the Civil Supplies Corporation, repair works are being carried out to spruce up the building.In the report, City Express had pointed out the appalling conditions of the three-decade-old building. The floors had disappeared with dust emerging from the floor as employees were seated outside the shops for billing purposes, thanks to poor infrastructure. Another shop had a flex board ceiling as a shelter from heat and rain.Cockroaches, rats and, at times, honeybees make a beeline to the dingy shops stacked with gunny bags containing food grains in the store rooms attached to the fair price shops. The government-run Fair Price Shops cater to over 6,000 families residing in MGR Nagar, KK Nagar and Nesapakkam areas in Chennai.Meanwhile, in a novel protest to mark their discontent over the functioning of the fair price shops in the old building, Hindu Munnani activists placed a wreath on its walls on Monday. Raising slogans against the poor conditions of the fair price shops, they sought relocation of the outlets. The shops must be shifted immediately, as the existing building posed danger to the consumers, the protesters charged.Interestingly, the fair price shop employees tore the wall posters of Hindu Munnai announcing the wreath laying protest in a haste, minutes before the protest began in the morning. Few workers were found removing the wall posters and replacing them with small pamphlets from the Civil Supplies Corporation, which expressed regrets for the inconvenience caused to the general public, in connection with the renovation works at the building.