Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said the State would soon have a holistic Food Security Act to boost agricultural production and related marketing system and to ensure equitable distribution of food grains among people. Speaking on the concluding day of the two-day district Collector’s conference at the State Secretariat here, the Chief Minister said irrigation facility would be created for additional 10 lakh hectares of land in next five years to raise agricultural production.
“Rs5,000 crore will be spent each year on small to mega irrigation projects and restoration of the defunct ones. Besides, efforts will be made to provide farmers quality seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and farm mechanisation along with agricultural credit with the lowest interest rates,” Patnaik said. Similarly, a network of storage facilities, including cold storage chains, threshing floors, drying yards and mandis would be created for safe-keeping of food grains and marketing avenues with a SMS-based information flow would be provided, he added.
The proposed Act would also ensure equitable distribution of food grains to all with focus on the tribals, slum dwellers and other vulnerable sections of the society. Indicators reflecting the socio economic conditions of a family would also be introduced to make the coverage inclusive and holistic.
“The proposed Act would cover about 3.26 crore people with distribution of nearly 72 lakh ration cards. The Collectors will have to play a very proactive role to ensure its proper implementation,” he noted. He asked the Collectors to expedite implementation of the Black Marketing Act and take stringent action against hoarders and black marketers. Private retailers should be completely replaced with institution-based PDS in a time bound manner, he said.
Stating that Rs400 crores is lying unspent with the Regulated Marketing Committees (RMCs), Patnaik directed the Collectors to use their extended approval capacity and utilise the unspent money on RMC’s marketing infrastructure. The Chief Minister also asked the Collectors to involve Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and other community-based organisations in PDS monitoring at the grassroots level.
Apart from this, the Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Department should come up with a SMS-based Complaint Monitoring System (CMS) to redress all PDS related grievances. Both these systems should be put in place within a period of two months, he said.