Employees of the two secretariats — House and Project Building- can expect relief from galloping inflation in next six months as the Cooperative department has decided to open a store of essential commodities dedicated solely to the staffs of the power centres in Jharkhand. The foundation stone for the two building was laid by Minister Cooperative Haji Hussain Ansari.
The under construction store- Cooperative Consumers Store — is likely to cost about `40-lakh each and will become operational in next six months.
“People working here (Nepal House and Project Building) will be benefited greatly by this store,” asserted the Minister.
The under construction building will a state-of-art, fully air-conditioned store of essential commodities, stationary items beside objects of regular use and will be operated on the principle of ‘no profit no loss’. The store will sell commodities at prices that will be fixed with the objective of recovering operating cost of the two stores. Although, the intended benefit is about six months away secretariat employees welcomed the idea of providing a buffer against price rise that is more frequent than a hike in salary.
“This will give us some respite from rise in prices of commodities such as sugar and oil. let us hope that the list of products sold will be expanded,” said D Jha, leader of Grade-III and IV employees association.
Depending on the need of consumers the department is also likely to open similar centres or depots at other locations in the city. Also, the place could be developed into a canteen for thousands of employees who throng road side food stalls and a makeshift tea stall within the premises of Nepal House in lunch break.
“Project building has one good canteen. If a canteen comes up at this place then we can also boast of a good place to eat like the one at Project Building,” an employee of DWSD mused.