STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD), called on Governor N. N. Vohra at the Raj Bhavan.
The Minister briefed the Governor about the ongoing schemes and steps initiated by his Department for ensuring timely, adequate and equal distribution of rations, particularly in the far off areas of the State. The Minister informed that CAPD is providing rations from 1st September 2015 to 6.70 lakh additional families, on the basis of 2011 Census.
Regarding the implementation of National Food Security Act in State, the Minister informed that this statute, to be enforced w.e.f 1st February, 2016, shall enable the CAPD to provide rations to 119.00 lakh souls of whom 74.13 lakh belong to the marginalised, deprived and downtrodden sections of the society at highly subsidized rates of Rs. 3 and Rs. 2 for rice and atta, respectively. Further, 45.00 lakh souls shall be provided rations at the prevalent APL rates i.e. rice @ Rs 10 and atta at the rate Rs. 8 per kg. Besides, there shall be uniformly of scale at 5 per kg per soul among all categories except the rationees covered under AAY who shall be provided rations at 35 kgs per family.
The Minister also apprised the Governor that among the other initiatives taken by his Department an e-PDS Project costing Rs 20 crore was being set up to regulate the supply chain management; mapping the entire movement of food grains from FCI godowns to the ultimate customers; installation of IP cameras in the major godowns in the State; electronic weighing scales at the sale points; display of stock positions; and online monitoring of foodgrains to make the system fully transparent.
The Minister stated that the Legal Metrology Department had booked 6,562 traders and imposed a penalty of Rs. 51.66 lacs in 2015-2016 while 5,596 traders were booked and penalty of Rs 47.00 lacs was imposed on them in 2014-2015.
