Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution and Tribal Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali, today said the government is contemplating to install IB cameras in CAPD stores of all the districts to ensure transparency and plug in pilferage of food grains.Besides, a 15 member vigilance and intelligence squad would be formed to monitor the quantity of ration being loaded and unloaded by the trucks in the ration stores, the Minister added.While addressing a meeting of the officers of CA&PD department, the Minister said that suggestion boxes, display boards and electronic weighing machines would be installed in all the fair price shops by the end of this month. He asked the officers to maintain proper directories and tour diaries of the activities including field visits and sampling testing by the department. He also directed for creating awareness among the people about the departmental schemes and the grievance redressal numbers through print and electronic media.
The Minister asked the officers to make sure that a uniform scale for distribution of ration in all the districts is maintained. He cautioned the officers of strict action who will be found fixing the scale on their own discretion. He instructed the Assistant Directors to submit shortage and recovery status to the Director CA&PD by next week. He enquired about the money transferred to ADs for transportation and handling of food grains. He asked for creating a transparent mechanism of transferring the money directly to the bank account of ADs who, in turn, should also transfer money directly to the bank accounts of ration dealers.The Minister directed for constitution of a committee to ascertain the grinding capacity of the flour mills so that the mills should not be given the grains beyond their grinding capacities.
Expressing concern over the presence of bogus ration cards, the Minister asked the concerned ADs to certify that no bogus ration card exists in their concerned district by next month.The Minister reviewed the preparations for implementation of National Food Security Act in the state and instructed the Director CA&PD to conduct a comprehensive workshop for ensuring complete implementation of the Act.Deputy Director CA&PD K. Syed Khan, Joint Director CA&PD Mansoor Aslam, Deputy Director CA&PD Arun Kishore Kotwal, Deputy Director (Supplies) Atam Dev Singh, Chief Accounts Officer and Assistant Directors of all the districts of Jammu region attended the meeting.