In a bid to provide food grains to the poor at cheaper rates, the State Government mulls to start Mukhyamantri Dal Bhat Yojana (MDBY) across the State to other districts also. Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Secretary Vinay Kumar Chaubey, while counting on the achievements of the Government in the last one year at Suchna Bhawan in Ranchi, added that Government also aims at ensuring food security to the poor of this State, which also includes providing food grains to the poor of on subsidised rates.
Though, Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Minister Saryu Roy was supposed to address the media persons but, due to some unknown reasons he could not reach there on time.
“We have already started night service at Dal Bhat Centres in Ranchi district which will be started soon in other districts also. We are also planning to start two centres each at Ranchi and Dhanbad, one each at Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur, Palamu and Deoghar districts in the State,” said Chaubey. In addition to that, one ideal Dal Bhat Centres will also established at Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Palamu and Doeghar and two centres at Jamshedpur, he said.
In a first of its kind scheme in India, as many as one lakh BPl families are to be provided free lPG connections in Jharkhand. “As many as 3800 beneficiaries so far, have been given free lPG connections and the process is still on to achieve the target of one lakh households very soon under the scheme,” Chaubey added.
In order to make PDS dealers financially secure, commission on food grains has also been raised from `45 to `80 per quintal, he said.
According to Chaubey, in a move to increase efficiency the State Government has filled up all vacancies and there was no any vacant post in the department.
Chaubey further added that Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs department becomes the first department in Jharkhand which has displayed Citizen Charter through which people are given information regarding their rights.
Reacting over a question related to duplicate ration cards which had hit the headlines a few days back, the Secretary informed the fault has been identified which will be rectified soon.
“Out of total ration cards prepared so far, there are 80,000 duplicate cards, which make around 0.5 per cent, have been identified. As it is quite visible in our computerised data, lists of those duplicate cards have been sent to the respective districts” said Chaubey. As those cards have not been distributed, no one is availing benefits from those cards, he said.
Chaubey added that the department also aims at make Kerosene available to everyone, run public distribution system effectively and also to form vigilance committees to monitor public distribution system in the State. Panchayat representatives have also been given adequate power for the vigilance and observation of PDS.