Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) and Information, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today directed the concerned to extend the trial run of Supply Chain management programme to 11 new districts of the State in second phase from first of next month.The Minister issued the instructions during a meeting held here to review the functioning of the Department.Getting feedback from the concerned officers regarding the issues faced during the trial run of the programme in first phase where it was started in district Samba of Jammu provision, the Minister said it is natural that there will be some issues or small technical problems wherever a new thing is introduced. However, the Minister added that with technically sound people and a dedicated team surpassing small glitches should not be a problem for the Department.The Minister directed the concerned to extend the Supply Chain management programme to Kashmir division’s Ganderbal, Bandipora, Budgam, Pulwama, Shopian and Leh districts while for Jammu province the programme would be trial run in districts of Kathua, Ramban, Poonch, Reasi and Doda from September 01.
Zulfkar Ali said that Government is making unprecedented efforts to provide adequate and timely supply of ration to people of the State in fair and transparent manner and initiation of Supply Chain management programme is a step towards the direction.Directing for formulating of training schedule, the Minister said the training regarding the Supply Chain management should be imparted to deputed FCS&CA staff for the effective implementation of the programme.Zulfkar Ali also reiterated need for installing trackers on vehicles carrying food grains. He said installation of GPRS tracking system in all carriage vehicles used in the transportation of food grains is a must to keep a tab on the trajectory and halts. He added the installation will help to check diversion of subsidized food grains.The Minister said in present age, digitization and scientific monitoring of food distribution is need of the hour to enforce accountability and transparency in the system.
While reviewing the status of Aadhar seeding to rationees, the Minister appreciated the progress made by the Department. He said the process needs to be completed at an earliest to eradicate duplicity of accounts and to ensure right people are getting right amount of food grains under right category.The Minister asked the FCS & CA functionaries to ensure that the consumers get all essential commodities as per the fixed quota and the timelines as well. He exhorted upon them to maintain financial discipline and all records properly, adding any laxity in this regard would not be tolerated and strict action would be taken against the erring officials.The Minister also reviewed the status of distribution of new ration cards and directed the officers to complete the allotment of the remaining in a time bound manner. He said the failure to do the same would result in disciplinary action against the culprits.Commissioner Secretary FCS&CA Department, Shafiq Ahmed Raina, Director FCS&CA Kashmir Nissar Ahmad Wani, Joint Director FCS &CA, Jammu, besides other senior functionaries of the Department were present in the meeting.