*Reviews NFSA implementation
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 3: In a landmark legislation, the State Administrative Council, which met here today under the chairmanship of Governor N N Vohra approved the ‘Jammu and Kashmir State Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 2016’.
This important piece of legislation will provide much awaited relief, respite and cheer in the lives of those, who are grappling with such disabilities.
The State Trust has been designed and devised on the lines of National Trust, whose jurisdiction is not extended to J&K. The Trust will be governed by a Board of Trustees comprising a Chairperson, who will be a person of eminence, having expertise in the field of autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, health, child development or related fields. This Board shall also contain other official and non official members.
Non-official members will be from associations of trade, commerce and industry engaged in philanthropic activities; registered organizations/ voluntary organizations; associations of persons with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation.
One representative of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India has also been incorporated in the Trust, to leverage the expertise and resources of this Ministry.
The SAC directed that immediate steps be taken to accelerate the constitution of the Board of Trustees.
The Trust will be underpinned by a Corpus of Rs 5 crore and it will be eligible for grants from the Government /private by way of donations, benefactions or endowments. The functional attributes of the Trust, will unfold, through a number of interventions and schemes like early intervention and school readiness scheme; providing support to persons with such disabilities; extending support to registered organizations; promoting measures for care and protection of such persons; addressing health needs of the persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiples Disabilities, through health insurance; developing modules for day care; respite care; Group Home for adults; guardianship for such persons; realization of equal opportunities and protection of rights and full participation of persons with such disabilities.
The SAC also reviewed the implementation of National Food Security Act, 2013.
Since all 22 districts have migrated to the national Public Distribution System portal of the Union Government, the SAC directed that CAPD Department should continue systematic efforts for achieving a high fidelity ration card database by ensuring total de-weeding and de-duplication of all bogus ration cards.
This would result in saving a significant quantity of foodgrains which can be utilized by the State for distribution amongst the most deserving and deprived sections of the society.
SAC took note of the grievances about the scale of the ration under NFSA, raised by certain sections in some of the locations of the State. It directed Chief Secretary to analyze the problem and workout a mechanism so that adequate availability of ration at affordable prices can be ensured from the month of March 2016 onwards.
SAC took note that since advance dumping has already been done in most of the snow bound areas, therefore, adequate stocks are already available to meet the requirements of the ration card holders in these areas.
SAC also directed CAPD Department to accelerate the efforts to fine-tune the supply chain management by deploying necessary hardware for end to end computerization so that e-enabled services like online issuance of ration card, grievance redressal and application for Fair Price Shop etc. become effectively operational by June, 2016.
SAC also directed time-bound installation of electronic weighing scales and point of sale devices (POS) in 6175 Fair Price Shops of the State, in the best interests of the rationees, to usher in an era of true transparency.
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