Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) Choudhary Zulfkar Ali today asked the concerned to formulate a comprehensive proposal to carry out construction work for 20 new Working Standard Laboratories (WSL) and Research and Development Centre under central assistance plan to strengthen the infrastructure of Legal Metrology Department (LMD).The Minister issued the instructions during a review meeting of LMD where the various steps related to strengthening of the department were discussed threadbare.Speaking during the meeting, the Minister said LMD is consumer related department which safeguards the rights and interests of consumers. The Minister said it become therefore, imperative that it has a good infrastructure so that its employees can deliver their duties in a professional manner. Keeping need of strengthening the department’s infra, the Minister directed to formulate a comprehensive proposal for the construction of 20 new WSLs, and Research and Development Centre in the State under central assistance plan.He added that the submitted proposal should also put forth a demand for procurement of 22 mobile laboratories for every district of the State.
During the meeting the Minister was updated with the progress of various ongoing construction works of seven laboratories, getting constructed across the State by J&K Housing Board. The officer from the executing agency assured the Minister that the construction work on most of the buildings would be completed by October this year.Speaking about the human resource issue LMD faces, the Minister said the LMD department is presently serving the entire State population with only 32 inspectors. As per the stats, one inspector is protecting the interests of around 3.5 lakh consumers in the State, which is not humanly possible, besides, affecting his quality of work, the Minister said. To address the issue, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali directed for expediting the re-organization process within the Department. The Minister asked for submitting of a detailed proposal in a time bound manner in this regard.He also impressed upon the concerned to submit a proposal for providing weighing instruments and weights at every Panchayat in a block to allow the local population to re-verify the weights and measures of their purchases.The meeting also decided to enhance awareness programmes regarding the rights, and duties of consumers by holding joint awareness programmes with FCS&CA and Information Department.Commissioner Secretary FCS&CA Shafiq Raina, Controller LMD Vipra Bhal, Additional Secretary Law Achal Sethi, Joint Director LMD Kashmir Amar Singh, Joint Controller, LMD V S Sambyal, Deputy Controllers, LMD Manoj Prabhakar, Tanveer Ahmad, Sunil Koul Scientist E NIC and officers of J&K Housing Board.