The Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today convened a meeting with district administration Samba and Kathua to review the headway made under National Food Safety Act (NFSA) and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Food Entitlement Scheme (MMSFES).MLA Bani Jeewan Lal, MLA HiraNagar Kuldeep Raj, Secretary CAPD Shafiq Ahmed Raina, DC Samba, Sheetal Nanda, Director CA&PD Jammu G.S Chib and ADDC Kathua Manmohan Singh were present in the meeting.During the meeting, the Minister reviewed the progress achieved in distribution of ration cards, store position, seeding of Aadhar in ration cards, supply of ration and Kerosene Oil in the districts.While reviewing the progress, the Minister called upon the district administrations and NIC to reconcile figures so that accurate data is reflected on the web portal. He directed SDM’s, Tehsildars and BDO’s to keep an eye on the disbursement of ration in their respective areas and be accessible for hearing complaints regarding the same.
District and Tehsil Level Monitoring Committees constituted as per govt order shall continue to function and will be responsible for monitoring and segregating the beneficiaries in the Priority, Non- Priority and Exclusion, after giving due opportunity of being heard, he added.The Deputy Commissioner Samba informed the meeting that the administration is continuously taking steps to ensure that data in all the categories is updated correctly.The Minister informed the participants that every vehicle carrying ration shall be enabled with Global Positioning System (GPS) with regular updates being sent to Deputy Commissioner Office. He designated the ACR as Nodal Officer for the Online Supply Chain Management System in the district with infrastructural and technological support from AD CAPD and DIO (NIC). The Minister complimented the district administration Samba in implementing NFSA and informed that Samba would be one of the first districts in the State where ‘Automation of Fair Price Shops’ shall be taken up. He directed AD’s of both the districts to submit proposals for establishing additional fair price shops with criteria of one shop per 250 ration cards.
Speaking on the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the Minister informed that 8 lacs free LPG gas connections shall be provided to BPL women beneficiaries in the state. He directed both the districts to identify 1000 beneficiaries this month so that the scheme shall be implemented from the month of August.
MLA Bani and MLA Hiranagar also spoke on the occasion. The meeting was also attended by Joint Director CAPD, Deputy Director CAPD, all the SDM’s, Tehsildars and BDO’s of both the districts.Later the Minister chaired an Interaction-cum-awareness programme in which local residents as well as dealers from both the district participated. He called upon all the participants to clear misconceptions about the NFSA and MMSFES as ration supply after the implementation of the act has enhanced considerably. Citing figures he informed that in Samba and Kathua, 13963 quintals and 27000 quintals of ration was supplied per month earlier which has now increased to 23468 and 42123 quintals after the implementation of NFSA and MMSFES. Also, 192177 and 375240 souls are getting highly subsidized ration in Samba and Kathua districts respectively.
Zulfkar informed that the state shall have to bear additional 400 crores for implementation of MMSFES. He stressed that public should be made aware that there is no shortage of ration and appealed public being aware of its rights as there is no shortage of ration and appealed the participants to use Toll free Numbers 1800 180 7011 and 1967 for registering their complaints.On the occasion, dealers and local residents also raised the issues being faced by them. Responding to queries, the Minister informed that ration at present is being provided as per 2011 census and an individual is entitled for ration supply at one place only. The Minister directed ADDC Kathua to fix carriage rates by July 31st. He also directed AD’s of CAPD to make sure that claims of dealers are submitted monthly so that liabilities don’t pile up.Later the Minister also distributed new Ration cards and Ration to beneficiaries under NFSA.