JAMMU: Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) and Information Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today directed the FCS&CA department to ensure timely payment of commission and carriage charges to the ration dealers.
The Minister was speaking at an open interactive session, ‘Mahapanchayat’ organized by the department at Food Store, Nagrota to listen to the grievances of the ration dealers.
MLA, Marh Sukhnandan Choudhary, MLA, Jammu East Rajesh Gupta, MLC Ramesh Arora were also present on the occasion.
Responding to the grievances of ration dealers, the Minister stressed on proper weighing of allocated ration to each fair price shop. He also instructed the dealers to lift ration from the stores after they are satisfied about the quantity and weight of the food grain they have been allocated.
The Mahapanchayat of ration dealers of Jammu was also attended by Deputy Commissioner, Jammu Kumar Rajeev Ranjan, General Manager, Food Corporation of India Kishore Kumar, Director, FCS&CA Jammu R.A Inqalabi, Director, FCS&CA Kashmir Nisar Ahmad Wani, SDMs, officers of the Legal Metrology Department, Tehsil Supply officers and representatives of oil companies and
He further said the ration dealers should be allowed to share transportation vehicles if they few fair price shops fall on the same route.
The Minister further directed Director, FCS&CA Jammu to provide Atta in bag package on trial basis to minimize the possibility of less quantity of ration distribution to the beneficiaries.
He asked the DC Jammu to submit updated list of beneficiaries in Jammu after placing right person in the right category so that ration cards can be distributed to the people as early as possible.
The Minister said that more than 80,000 quintals of Atta is available in food stores in Jammu. He asked the ration dealers to immediately lift the flour and distribute it among the beneficiaries.
Enumerating the steps being taken by the department to enforce transparency and accountability in ration distribution, the Minister said online allocation of food grains, supply chain management has greatly helped in streamlining the system. He said installation of PoS machines in fair price shops is another major reform being introduced by the department.
The Minister further directed the officers of LMD to constitute squads to keep check on overcharging and profiteering during the festive season. He asked the oil companies to improve home delivery system of LPG cylinders and avoid the sale on the roads.
Underlining the need for mass awareness about the departmental schemes, the Minster asked the local administration at sub-division and Tehsil levels to hold awareness programmes to educate the people about the scale and rates of food grains under NFSA and MMSFES.
The Minister also placed under suspension TSO Dansal and Inspector, City Circle-2.
Meanwhile, the legislators also raised their concerns related to distribution of ration in their constituencies. MLA, Jammu East Rajesh Gupta sought to ascertain the possibility of distributing sugar to Non Priority Households in Jammu.
MLA, Marh Sukhnandan Choudhary asked for distribution of new ration cards to the people soon and put forth the problems faced by the people in getting ration in rural areas.
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