Union Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shantmanu, has appreciated the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA), J&K for holistic transformation and streamlining of the public distribution system, through introduction of reforms and technology.
Interacting with the officers of the FCS&CA Department, J&K & FCI here today in a meeting, the Union Additional Secretary commended the efforts made by the Department to make the Public Distribution System hassle-free, convenient, credible and clean.
Earlier, Commissioner Secretary FCS&CA, Zubair Ahmad in his presentation, presented an overview of the functioning of the Department with stress on reforms and new initiatives. He informed the Additional Secretary that there are 25.11 lakh ration card holders in J&K covering 98.62 lakh beneficiaries with cent percent Aadhaar Seeding. He said the Aadhaar Seeding has facilitated removal of more than a million duplicate/bogus beneficiaries.
Commissioner Secretary said the Public Distribution System in J&K is built around a strong and widespread network of 6642 ration shops and ePoS devices have been installed in all the sale outlets across J&K and the distribution process is fully automated with Aadhaar authentication rate of 94% in transactions. He said 6377 PoS machines are working in an online mode.
He also apprisedthat eKYC of 54.46 lakh beneficiaries under NFSA and 21.27 lakh beneficiaries under NPHH has so far been completed by the Department and it is being completed in a mission mode. The Department has also taken steps for implementation of Smart PDS as per the directives of Government of India.
Regarding One Nation-One Ration Card (ONORC), Zubair said that so far 1.22 lakh, ONORC transactions were made, taking J&K to 9th position in the country. He also said that during this period nearly 34 lakh portability (Inter-District) transactions were also made in J&K. Commissioner Secretary also highlighted various initiatives taken to transform FPSs.
These include signing of MoU between the Department of FCS&CA, J&K and CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd to leverage ePoS devices to deliver CSC services and a hike in FPS Commission ordered across all the schemes and payment of commission in advance to FPS Dealers under NFSA, pending release of funds for this purpose by the Department of Food & Public Distribution, Government of India.
Some pending issues requiring intervention of the Union Ministry were also flagged by the Commissioner Secretary. Union Additional Secretary also took review of the working of the Food Corporation of India in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. A detailed presentation was made in this regard by the General Manager, Food Corporation of India, informing the participants about various efforts of FCI in ensuring a smooth PDS in J&K and Ladakh.
Shantmanu asked the officers of the Department of FCS&CA, J&K and FCI to coordinate closely and ensure a hassle free PDS. He also assured of all possible help on the requests made by the Commissioner Secretary, FCS&CA, J&K, which require intervention of the Union Ministry for a resolution.
The meeting was attended by Abdul Rashid War, Director, FCS&CA, Kashmir, Chatru Naik, General Manager, FCI, S. K Das, General Manager, FCI, and other officers of the Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Food Corporation of India.