Food and Civil Supplies Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah has said that the consumers of Bhopal city will have the facility to purchase foodgrains from fair price shop of their choice from June. For this, he has asked 267 Government fair price shops in the city to be ready for competition.
The Minister was addressing a workshop for fair price shops’ salesmen under ‘ASAR’ programme at Academy of Administration on Monday. The Minister announced to increase commission of salesmen of about 25,000 fair price shops in the State from Rs20 per quintal to Rs70 per quintal. Salesmen will get the benefit with effect from April 2015. Principal Secretary Food and Civil Supplies Ashok Warnwal and Commissioner Food and Civil Supplies Manohar Agnani were present on the occasion.
The Minister said that Government fair price shops will be made multi-purpose. Apart from subsidised foodgrains, consumers will also get other useful articles and goods at fair price shops including saris, grocery, note-books, etc. For this, discussions are being held with major companies. The Minister said that the department will fully safeguard consumers’ interests. He said that it is responsibility of salesmen to ensure that all eligible consumers get materials on right time, in right quantity and at right prices.
Minister Kunwar Shah urged salesmen of fair price shops in the State to liberally donate towards relief to Nepal’s earthquake victims. He said that the amount deposited in CM Relief Fund will be transferred to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.
Principal Secretary Food and Civil Supplies Ashok Warnwal stressed need for time-bound work to implement ‘ASAR’ from June. Shops of concerning salesmen will be suspended on failing to complete 90 per cent work of form entry. He exhorted salesmen not to let consumers face any problems during May.
He informed that 12 centres are functioning for preparing Aadhar card. Commissioner Food and Civil Supplies Manohar Agnani informed that number of eligible families in Bhopal city is 2.96 lakh and eligible family members 13.75 lakh.