The Union Ministry for Food and Consumer Affairs has set up a task force headed by sectary level officer to keep a vigilant eye on supply of substandard food grains meant for Jammu and Kashmir.The development has come after the Jammu and Kashmir government had complaint that the substandard supply of rice is being received by the FCS&A department.Reliable sources told KNS that the task force, headed by the Secretary level officer, will monitor and supervise all issues related to the management of food grains in the state of Jammu and Kashmir to ensure smooth distribution of the food grains.
One of the senior officials of the department said that they have received the communication that Union minister has taken a serious note of the matter.He said that the communication reads: “Soon after the matter came into the notice of the minister he directed to constitute a special task force. The task force comprising top officers will keep the vigil on supply of food grains and will monitor the distribution process of the food grains,” the official while quoting union minister said.Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (C&PD), Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali had said that the substandard supply of rice is being received by the department.
“Our one of the depot in North Kashmir has received two trucks of substandard rice. We have communicated to authorities of FCI in this regard and both the trucks were sent back to the FCI,” Zulfkar Ali had said.It is also to mention here that the Crime Branch of JK Police has also initiated preliminary investigation and has conducted raids on Food Corporation of India stores in the Kashmir valley after reports of alleged supply of substandard rice to consumers.
The Inspector general of police Crime Branch Muneer Ahmad Khan had said that they have initiated preliminary investigation and have conducted raids on Food Corporation of India stores in Letpora pulwama, Shali store Srinagar and other stores in north kashmir.“We have started preliminary investigation in this regard. Our teams have conducted raids in FCI stores and have collected the samples,” Khan had said.He had also said that they have reports that high quality FCI rice is being sold in open market while the same is replaced in the godowns by substandard ration. (KNS)