Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) and Tribal Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today said the government has taken various path-breaking initiatives for ensuring planned and systematic development of the state.The Minister said this while addressing the gathering during a public meeting in Jammu.Vice Chairman, J&K State Advisory Board for Welfare and Development of Scheduled Castes Bhushan Lal Dogra was also present on the occasion.A large number of people hailing from different sections of the society participated in the public meeting and apprised him of their problems and demands related to opening of new fair price shops at Satwari and Chatha, expediting the four-laning work of Jammu-Akhnoor road and providing compensation to those who lost their livestock during cross border firings.The people also informed him about other issues related to PDD, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, PWD(R&B), FCS&CA, Tribal Affairs, Agriculture, Revenue and allied departments.
The Minister said the prime aim of conducting such public meetings is to provide single platform to the public for raising their issues and demands so that these can be redressed on the spot by the concerned officers.While responding to the issues raised by people of RS Pura, Bishnah and other areas mainly related to distribution of ration cards, the Minister directed the officers to organize public grievances redress camps in these areas for the convenience of the common masses.The Minister said that both the Centre and state government have launched various welfare schemes and they should avail maximum benefits of the same.While enumerating various path-breaking steps taken by FCS&CA department, the Minister said food grain distribution chain has been strengthened for the benefit of common masses including digitization of data, sanctioning of 4,388 new fair price shops, introduction of electronic weighing scales, launching of PoS, linking ration tickets with Aadhaar, tracking made mandatory through GPS installed on commodities transporting vehicles, toll free helpline no 18001807106, vigilance and monitoring committees constituted at village level to monitor distribution of food-grains, and distribution of kerosene oil among others, quarterly issuance of food grains.He further said the government has initiated various vital projects worth crores to facilitate people with amenities like roads, bridges, schools and drinking water schemes.Among others, senior officers of FCS&CA, Tribal Affairs, PHE, PDD, PWD(R&B), prominent citizens, senior political and a large number of people were present in the public meeting.