Minister for Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) Choudhary Zulfkar Ali today asked concerned agencies to ensure sufficient stock of essential supplies in the Kashmir division.Speaking during a review meeting of the Department, the Minister said that the services provided by the FCS&CA fall under essential services category, therefore, it is imperative for its employees and all concerned agencies to ensure that its consumers do receive unabated supply of essential items like food grains, petrol and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).The meeting was informed that for month of August so far out of 83 percent of food grains lifted from godowns of Food Corporation of India (FCI), 74 percent of food grains have already been distributed across the Kashmir province.
He directed the concerned officers to expedite the distribution process of remaining ration, so that people can get their allotted quota on time without any delay.The Minister while directing FCI officials to ensure adequate stock supply in their godowns said that FCI needs to improve their stock position in Valley as the Government has already announced to provide three months advance ration from October. He said that the process would be started from three districts of Bandipora, Kupwara, and Baramulla, where consumers would get three months ration in one go. He said later on the service would be extended to other three districts till all the districts in Valley get covered.It was given out that till August 24, 2016 as many as 6103 metric tons of wheat, 37,802 metric tons of rice was available in FCI godowns in Valley.
Zulfkar Ali while stressing the need to create synergy in between various agencies responsible in distribution of food grains among consumers said that FCI, State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC), and FCS&CA are sister organizations who need to work in coordination to improve their performance.He also asked FCI to strictly implement decisions taken during an early meeting between FCS&CA and the Centre. He also instructed Director FCS&CA Kashmir to formulate a comprehensive mechanism which would provide a complete detail of food grains lifted and distributed.The Minister appreciated efforts of FCS&CA employees for delivering their duties in present situation to ensure ration reaches to the consumers. However, he said that the Department needs to ensure that besides checking scarcity of food grains, FCS&CA employees should also monitor scarcity of any other product in the market.Secretary, FCS&CA Sajjad Ahmad Khan, Director FCS&CA, Kashmir Tasaduq Jeelani, Special Secretary FCS&CA, Nisar Ahmad Wani, Additional Secretary, FCS&CA Ramesh Chander, Area Manager Kashmir division, FCI Kulbushan Koul, along with Assistant Directors of FCS&CA, Kashmir Division attended the review meeting.