Governor, CP Radhakrishnan, on Monday, assured Jharkhand State Food Commission (JSFC) Chairman Himanshu Shekhar Chowdhary and JSFC Member, Shabnam Parveen that he will cooperate in the direction of removing the deficiencies by talking to the State and Central Government if needed.
The Governor said this during a meeting with Chowdhary and Parveen at Raj Bhawan.
During this, Chowdhary handed over the annual report of the year 2020-2022, published by the State Food Commission and dedicated to the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, to the Governor. He also dedicated the report related to the work being done by the Commission, its structure and workforce to the Governor.
Radhakrishnan appreciated the Mukhiya Samvad held by JSFC, hearing, public hearing and site inspection works being conducted by the Commission in nine districts such as Palamu, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Lohardaga, Gumla, Simdega, Jamtara, Dumka and Godda so far. He himself expressed his desire to get information about the situation by being present in the Mukhiya Samvad program started by the Commission. The Governor instructed his Principal Secretary, Nitin Madan Kulkarni to fix the programme in June in Borio block of Sahebganj district after consulting with the commission.
The Governor took the initiative of registering complaints in the WhatsApp number 0-9142622194 issued by the Commission and receiving complaints online through the Commission's website https://jharkhandsfc.in, hearing through video conferencing and publicity of NFSA through TV news channels and newspapers. Appreciated the initiative to honour the Additional Collector-cum-District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO) and the proposal to honour the head of the districts for doing better work towards dissemination and speedy execution of the complaints of the beneficiaries.
Chowdhary informed the Governor that there is a plan to honour three chiefs who have done a better job in implementing NFSA in all the districts of the state on the commission's foundation day on December 9 this year. On this, the governor instructed Chaudhary that the selection process for awarding the head should be such that before selection, an impartial physical examination of the operation of NFSA in the concerned panchayats is done, otherwise the commission will not achieve the objective of giving all the beneficiaries their rights.
The Governor said that in future Mukhiya Samvad programmes, hearings and public hearings to be organized in other districts should be held in those blocks from where more complaints related to PDS, Anganwadi, malnutrition and mid-day meal are coming. He said that they should tell through a report how much and what kind of cooperation is being received from the State and the Central Government in 100 per cent implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the State.