In this Bhubaneswar suburb, people wait overnight to get PDS rice

If you think, at least the people of Bhubaneswar do not have to go through the ordeal to get their share of rice under the Public Distribution System (PDS), think again. There is a fair-price shop in the suburbs of Odisha's capital, where beneficiaries of PDS rice have to wait for more than 15 hours to get rice.

The PDS shop at Kolathia on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar has a reported limit of 100 ration cards per day. But the beneficiaries outnumber the limit almost every day, forcing people to queue up from the previous evening.

People wait for more than 15 hours and spend sleepless nights to receive PDS rice against their ration cards.

A beneficiary who was in the queue said, “I came at 6 PM and have put my ration card in the queue. It is at number three. I will receive my rice when the control shop opens at 9:30 AM tomorrow.”

“I came at around 3 AM last night and still failed to receive rice as the 100-beneficiary limit was exhausted much before my turn. So I have come in the evening today to make a queue for tomorrow,” said another ration card holder waiting to receive rice.

As per reports, the long queue of beneficiaries and ration cards lined up one behind the other in front of the closed gate of the Kolathia fair price shop is a regular sighting. While the beneficiaries continue to suffer due to the limited number of disbursals, the dealer of the fair price shop was not available for comments.