Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 12: Advisor to Governor, Parvez Dewan has instructed the Divisional Commissioner Jammu and the authorities of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department to take necessary steps and ensure that food grains are dispatched to sale out lets of CA&PD for early distribution among the consumers.
The Advisor was speaking at a meeting convened to review the status of distribution and supply position of food grains in wake of strike called by labourers/hamals of the CA&PD for fulfilling their demands .
Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Secretary, CA&PD, Director CA&PD and other senior officers from CA &PD were present in the meeting.
The Advisor said that out of the four demands projected by the hamals three have been addressed by the Government while the forth one is being examined and said that the strike was unjustified and causing inconvenience to the public .He asked the hamals to resume work in the godowns as their other demand is being reviewed .
Mr Dewan called upon the authorities of CA&PD to utilize the available manpower and ensure that ration is provided to the people at the earliest . He asked them to expedite the process to ensure that remaining ration is distributed among the consumers before the end of this month. He said people cannot be made to suffer on this account and directed that immediate step should be taken for dispatching food grains to CA&PD outlets including fair price shops.
Divisional Commissioner informed the Advisor that a meeting was held with the representatives of labour unions of Jammu and Kashmir divisions in which their issues and demands were discussed thoroughly.
He informed that three demands out of four demands projected have already been addressed and services of 188 hammals have been regularized besides clearing the payment of arrears under Minimum Wage Act of the labourers, also the old aged and infirm labourers were replaced by their kith and kin.
It was further apprised that the Government has constituted a committee to look into other demand which has submitted its report. The Advisor was informed that representatives were made clear about the Supreme Court directions regarding “No Work No wages”. He said the representatives were made aware of the fact that this ruling will be implemented if they fail to resume their work and nobody would be allowed to disrupt the distribution of ration in any case . He said the representatives were also informed about delivery of food-grains comes under the purview of Essential Service and disrupting the process will be dealt sternly to safeguard public interest .
It was also decided in the meeting that fair price shop dealers can now lift food grains directly from CA&PD go-downs to ensure adequate and timely availability of ration at the sale outlets of CA&PD Department.
The Advisor instructed the authorities to implement the decision in letter and spirit and make sure that food grains reach to the sale out lets from tomorrow. He asked them to work in close coordination for streamlining the process and to deal firmly with the elements trying to cause hindrances in smooth distribution of ration to the consumers.
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