The Department of Food and Civil Supplies has made a headway in forming Jharkhand State Food Commission, the apex regulatory body mandated under the Food Security Act (FSA) to oversee the affairs.
Top sources in the Department said that following publication of a notice in this regard and influx of applicants for the positions in the Commission (SFC), now the further process is to be undertaken.
“We have already published a notification following a Cabinet decision. August 31 was the last date for applying for the positions including chairperson and members in the State Food Commission. In total, we have received any thing between 400 to 500 applications. The process of short listing the applications is continuing and we are in the final leg of the selection process,” said Vinay Kumar Choubey, Secretary in the Department.
The National Food Security Act, 2013 says that every State Government shall, by notification, constitute a State Food Commission for the purpose of monitoring and review of implementation of the Act. The Centre is also to provide one time financial assistance to it for non building assets for the Commission to the States as well as to strengthen the PDS, capacity building, quality control, consultancies and research etc of the Department.
The SFC for the State would be constituted with a Chairperson, five other members, a member-secretary with associated administrative and technical staffs. Confirming the development, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Saryu Roy said that the Commission would comprise of social activists and food experts.
“The very purpose of the Commission is to make the food distribution system robust in the State. As several new components, infusion of technology and spread in beneficiaries’ list are to take place, the Commission holds immense significance at present. There is still scope left for adding new FSA beneficiaries and going to implement things like point of sale machine coverage, biometrics based delivery system and Direct Benefit Transfer in a big way,” said Roy.
The Minister also pointed out that the Department is working on a software that would assist the Commission in a big way. “The software would assimilate and verify the information coming from grassroot level about implementation of the FSA. It would be a grievance redressal mechanism on electronic platform for verification and debugging the complaints coming in,” he added.
Notably, the Department has also carved out a Directorate to manage the civil supply system in the State in a better way.