Food Commission, Vigilance Committees in the offing
*Panchayats, ULBs to play crucial role in service delivery
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 28: Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has started an exercise for putting in place a detailed mechanism including establishment of a Commission to ensure effective implementation of National Food Security Act, 2013 and for timely redresssal of grievances of the consumers. Moreover, Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) will be roped in for smooth delivery of service and for acting as watchdog.
The Section 40 of the National Food Security Act, 2021 empowers the Governments of States/UTs to make Rules for effective implementation of law and as per this provision the Government of J&K UT has prepared draft Jammu and Kashmir National Food Security Rules, 2021 and the same have been put in public domain for inviting suggestions before giving final shape to the same.
Once finalized, these Rules will pave the way for establishment of detailed mechanism to ensure effective implementation of Act and to redress grievances/complaints in a time bound manner. There will be a Food Commission as per Section 16 of the Act and the Chairperson, Members and the Member Secretary of the Commission will be appointed by the Government on the recommendation of a Search Committee headed by Chief Secretary.
The Food Commission will have the powers to constitute bench for deciding the appeals filed against the orders of District Grievance Redressal Officer; inspect or cause to be inspected the non-compliance of policy decisions of the Government relating to the Act and organize regional camps in coordination with the Government for generating awareness about benefits and entitlements under the Act and define measures for redressal of grievances.
There will be Vigilance Committees at Fair Price Shop level, block level, district level and UT level. In rural areas the Fair Price Shop level Vigilance Committee will be headed by Sarpanch of Panchayat concerned while as concerned Corporator/Councilor will head in case of Municipal ward.
Similarly, Block Development Council Chairman and President of the Municipal Council/Committee or representative of the Mayor will head block level and Urban Local Body level Vigilance Committee while as District Development Commissioner will be the chairman of the District level Vigilance Committee. Likewise, Minister/Advisor Incharge of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department will be the Chairperson of the UT level Vigilance Committee.
Moreover, the Government will assign such duties at the district, tehsil and village levels to the Panchayats which in its opinion cannot be conveniently carried out by existing arrangements of service delivery. Similarly, Government will assign similar duties in Municipal area to the Urban Local Bodies.
The Vigilance Committees will conduct the periodic social audit covering overall functioning of the targeted public distribution system like regular opening of the fair price shop or Government ration depot; timely receipt and distribution of food-grains, quality of food-grains and correct weighment, proper and correct maintenance of the records and equipments, display of stock, price and entitlement, availability of list of ration card holders and verification of at least 5% of the ration cards to ensure proper and timely distribution of PDS commodities.
Moreover, all the records related to allotment, storage and distribution of ration commodities under Public Distribution System at Fair Price Shops will be placed in the village level meeting of Vigilance Committee to be held at least twice a year for social audit.
After audit of the documents at the Vigilance Committee the report along with recommendation will be submitted to the block level Vigilance Committee, which will forward recommendations to the district level Vigilance Committee for further necessary action.
In case any action found to have been taken contrary to the interest of the beneficiaries at the time of social audit, the same will be brought forthwith to the notice of the concerned authorities for taking action under applicable rules.
Further, there will be internal grievance redressal mechanism in the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department besides District Grievance Redressal Officers.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
