Unemployed youth from different villages of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district have accused the department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCSCA) of nepotism in issuance of fair price shop licenses (FPS).

Tanveer Ahmad, a resident of Chak-e- Badrenath (CB Nath) village of Pulwama district said that he had applied for FPS license for running a fair price shop at his native village of CB Nath.

“I made dozens of rounds at office of FCSCA Pulwama to know the fate of my application,” he said, adding that he was surprised to known that the concerned authorities have already issued the license to a person wielding political influence.

He said that authorities at FCSCA Pulwama had issued the license to Mansoor Ahmad Wani, a resident of Ichgoza village in violation of norms stated in their advertisement notice.

“As per the norm FPS license holder should be a permanent resident of concerned village,” he said, adding that the authorities violated the norm for influential persons. 

Dejected with desecration by FCSCA, Tanveer moved an application before district magistrate Pulwama on August, 07, 2017 pleading before him that the matter be enquired to find out on what basis his candidature was rejected.

“The application was forwarded to assistant director, FCSCA Pulwama on same day with the instructions that the information be provided within three days,” he said, adding that till date nothing was heard from the concerned department.

The aggrieved applicant said that he also sought the information under Jammu and Kashmir right to information ( RTI) act 2009, a copy of which is with ‘Kashmir Vision’ but no information was provided to him despite more than 50 days having passed since then.

In his RTI application, Tanveer has sought copies of documents submitted by Mansoor Ahmad Wani and eligibility norm for issuing license for running a fair price shop.

Authorities at FCSCA Pulwama said that they were to issue around 123 new FPS licenses out of which 64 have been issued.

Sources within the department said that the licenses were given to persons wielding political influence while as the unemployed youth were ignored.

Assistant director, FCSCA for Pulwama, Riyaz Ahmad Malik denied allegations that they provide licenses to any influential persons.

“Earlier the licenses were issued under first come first serve basis, nowadays we submit them to directorate office where from they are processed,” he said.

On the issue of issuing license for CB Nath to a resident of Ichgoza, he said villagers of CB Nath objected issuing it in favour other person.

 “Now we are going to cancel the license,” he said.  He also negated denying information under RTI act.

“We have a calendar for answering RTI applications, I think the information would be sent to the applicant,” he said.

Guest