CITY DIARY: Why not ‘ration cards’?

Islamabad: Back in 1965, we came to Islamabad soon after the war, as father was a government servant. In fact, first my family shifted from Karachi to Rawalpindi in 1962 and then from Rawalpindi to Islamabad in 1965 when the government offices were shifted to the Pakistan Secretariat complex of buildings.

One wonders whether it was the post-war phenomenon or something else, but I remember that we used to get flour and sugar and later even ‘ghee’ on ration card from the ‘Ration Depots’ on subsidized rates. Those ‘Ration Depots’ were allotted by the government and were located in all the community markets, big and small, located in all the sectors of the federal capital.

Government had issued ‘Ration Cards’ to people which used to be a small, pocket diary kind of book with the mention of the name of the ‘Ration Card’ holder, address and the number of family members in it. Every week or two weeks, we used to accompany father to the ‘Ration Depot’, stand in the queue. When our turn would come, father will present the ‘Ration Card’, to the man behind the rickety desk.

The owner of ‘Ration Depot’ will open a big ledger, will find the page and carefully cross check the card number and contents mentioned on it. Once satisfied he would tell ‘handler’ to weigh both flour and sugar as allowed per card details and pour in cloth sacks we used to bring along from home. We would walk back home carrying flour and sugar our heads or backs!

Now the situation is far worse than what it was like back in 1965. There are three things spiralling higher and higher by the day if not by the hour in the country! Inflation, poverty and beggary! This is high time that the government should adopt similar scheme to provide immediate relief to the segment of society, which has drifted below the poverty line in face of the unprecedented inflation.

The network of ‘Utility Stores Corporation’ could be well used for the purpose with the basic change that it would be responsible to supply only three basic food items, flour, sugar and oil/ghee. The BISP/Ehsaas has already prepared a nationwide database through which the deserving people, below poverty line according to a laid down criteria, could very easily and expeditiously be identified. These people/families should be issued ‘ration cards’ through which they may be able to purchase flour, sugar and ghee/oil from the ‘Utility Stores Corporation’ outlets and adequately subsidised rates. It would be much better than distributing ‘free flour’ in an undignified manner to the deserving citizens.