Ranchi: Chief Secretary Raj Bala Verma today said that farmers should be given minimum support price (MSP) of their produce without fail.
Farmers should be registered at the earliest and their bank accounts should be linked with their Aadhaar numbers so that their amount can be paid in their bank account. She said that grain should be bought from e-procurement system and timely payment should be ensured. She said it while reviewing PDS department with officers through video conferencing and directing SDOs and district PDS officers.
Verma directed state officials concerned to do physical verification of food grain purchasing centres and upload the report. She said that district level officers should remain in contact with the farmers so that they do not face any problem.
SDOs will be held responsible for the subdivisions having less than 10-15 percent procurement. She directed to estimate the capacity of established mills and tag them. First their machine/electric bill/capacity should be estimated and later tagged.
During the review, the CS said that in many districts, food-grains are not being lifted as per the number of registered beneficiaries. Districts where beneficiaries have not taken food grain should be verified. If they are found wrong, their name should be deleted from the list.
A campaign should be run by the department. In second and third phase, distribution of food grains should be also ensured through E-Pos. Grain should be lifted from 1st to 10th date of every month. License of shops not distributing grain through E-Pos should be cancelled and sakhi mandals should be considered for distribution of shops on priority basis.
Directing the FCI officers, the CS said that every district should have go-downs to keep thrice of its requirements. FCI should map the go-downs and report what capacity of go-downs is required in the districts to maintain supply of food-grain. She also directed Deoghar, Dumka, Palamu and Khunti districts to select godowns in their districts.
PDS Secretary Vinay Choubey, Joint Secretary Chhavi Ranjan and FCI officers were present at the meeting.
