Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) and Tribal Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today directed the officers to complete installation of PoS machines in the left-out districts including Baramulla, Leh and Kargil by end of this month.The Minister issued these directions while reviewing the progress on implementation of electronic Public Distribution System (ePDS) in the state.He directed the authorities of M/S Linkwell Telesystems Pvt. Ltd. to increase the manpower for providing training to the officers and fair price dealers in various parts of the state to handle PoS machines. The list of trainers should be provided to both the Directors who will then deploy these trainers for training purposes, he added.Zulfkar stressed upon the implementing agencies to strictly adhere to the set timelines for completion of ePDS in the state and directed to make coordinated efforts to ensure cent per cent installation of PoS devices. He directed all the Assistant Directors of all the districts to switch over to PoS for sale of foodgrains from April 1, 2018. He said that strict action would be taken against the dealers if they are found selling the foodgrains manually.While reviewing the status of implementation of Ration Card Management System, the Minister directed NIC to ensure implementation of the system within next one month after proper security audit of the software. He also reviewed the status for preparation of ration cards for West Pakistani refugees.
The Minister was informed that 2,30,554 transactions have been made using PoS machines in 19 districts till March 26, 2018.Underlining the importance of ePDS, Ch Zulfkar said that the government has initiated the process of ePDS to ensure digitization of Public Distribution System to make it more transparent, accountable and pilferage proof. He asked the concerned officers to adopt proactive approach for implementation of ePDS in efficient manner to put an end to the ration pilferage in the state.The Minister also took detailed review of district wise stock and supply position, allocation, lifting and distribution of food grains and asked the field functionaries to ensure that every beneficiary of National Food Security Act (NFSA), Mufti Mohammad Syeed Food Entitlement Scheme (MMSFES) and other schemes receive allotted quota of food grains in time.Regarding the status of distribution of new ration cards among the consumers, the Minister was informed that total 11,50,122 ration cards have been distributed till date. He directed FCS&CA officers to complete the process of the distribution of rations cards at the earliest.Commissioner Secretary FCS&CA M.D Khan, Director FCS&CA Ch Rashid Azam Inqalabi, Director FCS&CA Kashmir Nasir Khan Wani, Controller Legal Metrology Department (LMD) Raj Kumar Katoch, Joint Director FCS&CA Jammu, Mansoor Aslam, Deputy Director and Assistant Directors of FCS&CA, senior officers of Administrative Department were present in the meeting.