Government is planning to provide advance ration of three months to consumers, Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali said here on Sunday.The Minister said this after inaugurating the meeting hall at the Directorate of Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution department.The Minister said that the Punjab government is already giving advance ration to its customers, and now J&K government is also working to do the same.“We intend to provide three-months advance ration to our customers, and we have already started working on it,” the Minister said.He added that during his recent visit to New Delhi he had a meeting with Union government in this regard where the state was assured of getting regular supply of food grains in advance.
The Minister added for this a proper mechanism needs to be developed, which includes finding space for storing the advance ration.Mr. Ali also directed the concerned officials to ensure that the distribution of ration is done before 15th of every month and an action would be taken against the people who fail to do so.
While adding that the pilferage in any form would not be tolerated, the Minister said that the government is working on to form certain guidelines according to which an action would be taken against the offenders.He said that guideline may include a warning for the first-time offender while a stern action against the habitual offenders would also be the part of it.The Minister also informed that the tendering of sugar would be done at the earliest so that the people of state would get sugar before the start of Holy month of Ramadhan.The meeting was attended by Secretary CA&PD Shafeeq Ahmad Raina, Director, CA&PD Peerzada Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, and other officers from the department.