Maveli empty-handed

KOCHI: A day before Vishu, people were running from pillar to post to garner the basic groceries needed for the day. Shanta, a homemaker from Panangadu, couldn’t get much-needed food items at a Maveli store at Kaloor. She said, “I did not get Matta rice, jaggery, sugar and other items. We are struggling to make both ends meet. The festival is round the corner and I do not know how my family is going to celebrate it.”Most of the people who came to the store said that they had to face similar situation at the time of Easter as well.Mathew T S who visited another Maveli store near Changampuzha Park said, “I saw enough stock on the store shelves in the morning. However, when I went there to purchase food items in the evening, nothing much was left there. On persisting, I managed to get a very small quantity of sugar. However, I could not get rice and had to get rice of an inferior quality from a ration shop.”When ‘City Express’ caught up with some of the Maveli store managers, they said that they had already given the indent of the necessary items to the district depot Supplyco. But they did not get a positive response.“We have never failed in giving them the indents on time and recently we have been getting a cold response from them,” said a store manager on condition of anonymity. Supplyco (district depot) junior manager Abdul Jabbar said that the shortage of items is due to stock taking. We have already sent the trucks laden with food items to the Maveli stores across the district. He also said that they had not been receiving the indents from the store managers.However, many sources with the stores refuted the statement. “We are supposed to give indents online. But as the online system has crashed, we have been giving the indents physically,” said sources. When ‘City Express’ contacted Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Anoop Jacob, he said, “The situation has not come to my notice so far. I will try to take stock of the situation at the earliest.”