Minster for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA), Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali, on Thursday asked the officers to expedite Aadhar seeding process and linking of ration cards with Aadhaar unique identification numbers to ensure better delivery of services besides cut down on fake beneficiaries.The Minister said this during a video conferencing with various Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir province to review the status of ration card seeding with Aadhar and various other works being done under FCS&CA department.
Highlighting the importance of Aadhaar seeding and linking of cards with the Aadhaar numbers, the Minister said the main aim of the activity is to weed out bogus rationees and ration cards from the system, and ensure that the benefit reaches to the deserving people in a systematic manner. “Besides ensuring equitable distribution of foodgrains among targeted beneficiaries the process will also help the department to move over to cashless transactions”, said the Minister adding that it would also drastically cut down on pilferage of food grains at various distribution points.
The Minister also sought update on progress of various initiatives taken by FCS&CA to switch over to digital mode. He said introduction of electronic point of sale (e-PoS) devices at food sale points would help in increasing transparency in the functioning of the department as the device authenticates beneficiaries during distribution of grains and also electronically records the amount of grains distributed.During the meeting, Zulfkar said the DCs have been made as District Authority of distribution process in their respective districts, who would depute a nodal officer for preparation and submission of regular reports regarding the distribution process. He also asked for early constitution of Vigilance Monitoring Committees in villages of their respective districts and forward the details to the department so that the committee members would be notified once the food grains are sent to their respective sale centres.The Minister stressed upon the DCs to ensure that the Circular 1 and Circular 2 is followed in letter and spirit.Asking for frequent surprise checks of various hotels, the Minister said district administration should ensure that consumers are not made to pay service charge by any hotel in their respective areas.During the meeting, the Minister was informed by DC Anantnag that they conducted various inspections after the circular was issued and afterwards have even realized fine from errant hoteliers.Secretary, FCS&CA Shafiq Ahmad Raina, Special Secretary, FCS&CA, Nisar Ahmad Wani, Director, FCS&CA, Tassduq Jeelani, and other concerned officers were present in the meeting.