Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 22: Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Zulfkar Ali today chaired a meeting to discuss the process for establishment of Maize Procurement Centres in potential areas of the State by Food Corporation of India(FCI).
The Minister sought district wise details regarding maize production, command area and sites for establishment of procurement centres (mandis) from the officers of Agriculture Department.
The Minister said that the Agriculture Department will provide logistical support to FCI for starting these procurement centres in the State on trial basis for the first time. The Government has taken this step to make the State self-sufficient and reduce dependency on neighbouring States for procurement of food grains, paddy and maize, he added.
The Minister said that all the nodal formalities would be completed shortly for opening Maize Procurement Centres at Mankote, Mendhar, Harni, Surankote, Chalas, Lam, Siot, Dhangri, Doongi, Palangar, Billawar, Reasi, Pouni and Raipur-Domana.
He directed the officers to conduct awareness programmes on regular basis for educating the farmers about the benefit of selling maize to FCI and the farmers should be encouraged to take optimum benefit of various state and centrally sponsored welfare schemes.
Earlier, the Minister also inaugurated Paddy Procurement Centre at Channu Chak in Marh. Vice Chairman J&K State Advisory Board for Development of Kisans Daljit Singh Chib, MLA Marh Sukhnandan Choudhary, Director, Food Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs GS Chib, Director Agriculture Department Ashok Malhotra, General Manager FCI Kishore Kumar and other officers of concerned departments were present on the occasion.
While addressing the gathering, the Minister said that the Government is laying stress on opening of adequate Paddy Procurement Centres in the State for ending the role of middlemen, check exploitation of farmers at the hands of private players and ensure maximum return to them for their produce.
Speaking on the occasion, MLA Marh Sukhnandan Choudhary appealed the farmers to bring clean and moisture free paddy to the procurement centres so that they don’t face any difficulty in getting their paddy accepted by the FCI.
Meanwhile, the Minister also launched consumer helpline of Legal Metrology Department for registering complaints regarding less weighment/less delivery of purchased goods, non-marking of declaration on packaged goods, unfair trade practices and deficiency in services by the shopkeepers.
Joint Controller Legal Metrology Department VS Sambyal, Deputy Controller LMD Manoj Prabhakar and Inspectors of LMD were present on the occasion.
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