Even as Kerala is gearing up to celebrate Thiruvonam on Thursday, hundreds of people are still waiting to get onam kit, ration, special rice and sugar. Technical error of ePoS machine in ration shops, unavailability of kits and absence of central share have disrupted ration distribution. More than 75 per cent of the people have bought all the kits and rations, but those who did not buy them earlier are suffering now.

The government had announced that yellow card holders will get 1 kg of special sugar and blue and white card holders will get 10 kg of special rice during Onam. However, the distribution of special rice and sugar got disrupted as the state did not receive the share from the Centre. Ration traders distributed goods to as many people as they could from the available stock. But the number of people who got the goods is pretty low when compared to the number of those who did not get them.

Many are coming to the ration stores asking for special rice and sugar. However, rice and sugar are not stocked in warehouses either.

The government had announced that the yellow card holders will get an extra one kg of sugar in addition to the usual one kg. This means that they will get a total of three kg of sugar, including the one kilo of sugar in the Onam kit. It is alleged that many of the 36,915 yellow card holders in the district are yet to receive even one kilo of sugar.

The government had also decided to give 10 kg of special rice to blue and white card holders. This too has not reached the shops. Special rice and sugar are not recorded in the e-PoS machine either. Although rice from the September stock is being given as special rice by some ration debtors, this will lead to problems later.