Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali has said that to bring transparency in ration distribution in the state, public partaking will be introduced and to achieve this goal Vigilance and Monitoring Committees will be constituted in all the districts.The Minister said this while chairing a joint meeting of the officers of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department and representatives of oil companies here today.The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Commissioners of Kathua, Samba, Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Ramban, Kishtwar, Doda and Udhampur through video conferencing.During the meeting, threadbare discussions were held district wise on issues including Aadhar seeding with ration cards, implementation of Consumer Protection Act and functioning of Consumer Protection Councils, implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA), Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY), stock and supply position, distribution of food grains, Vigilance Monitoring Committees, distribution of ration cards and installation of GPS in trucks carrying food grains.
The Minister directed all DCs to expedite the process of seeding Aadhar with the ration cards. He asked them to convene regular monthly meetings of Consumer Protection Councils in their respective districts.“It is our prime duty to safeguard the interests of consumers and the focus has to be laid on their rights”, he said adding that in future village level monitoring committees will also be constituted to keep check on pilferage in the distribution of ration.Zulfkar discussed the implementation of NFSA with all the DCs and directed for freezing the number of beneficiaries as per the target given to them. While discussing the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY), the Minister directed the DCs to actively involve the district administration to ensure identification of real beneficiaries. He also asked the representatives of oil companies to maintain close coordination to achieve the goal of providing free LPG connection to women of BPL families.
Stock supply position in all the districts of Jammu province was also discussed in the meeting. The Minister asked the DCs to ensure timely distribution of food grains and to maintain adequate stock of ration. He also directed them to expedite the process of distribution of ration cards to the consumers without any delay.The Minister said that the ration will be allocated quarterly to the districts for which district administration and the Food Supplies department have to be prepared to stock the ration with them. He said that for smooth and timely distribution of ration to the consumers, 4362 new fair price shops will be opened soon. He further informed that online allocation of food grains to district Ramban, Reasi, Poonch and Rajouri will be launched on August 29. He said that the online allocation of food grains had been started first in district Samba as pilot project.While discussing the supply position of petroleum products to Kashmir, the Minister directed the representatives of oil companies to maintain regular supply of petrol and diesel to Kashmir valley. Responding to the issue of providing security to the oil tankers, the Minister assured that the Government would take appropriate steps in this regard. Among others, Director FCS&CA Jammu, G.S. Chib, ADC Jammu Rifat Kohli, Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors, representatives of oil companies and other concerned officers attended the meeting.