FREE SUGAR SCHEME IN TEA GARDENS
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday reviewed the functioning of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department at Janata Bhawan. He emphasised on strengthening of the department for effective public service delivery.
Urging the department to take appropriate measures for launching the free sugar distribution scheme to tea garden population in the State, Sonowal asked for holding a launch meeting of the scheme towards last week of January next year. He also directed the department to look for means to safely dispose the plastic bags containing sugar without causing environmental harm.
Around 6 lakh beneficiaries are expected to be benefitted by free sugar distribution scheme in the tea garden areas where each beneficiary would receive a packet of 2 kg each per month.
Sonowal called on the department to spread the right message about the scheme through which the State Government would strive to fulfil nutritional requirements lacking in the diets of tea garden population.
Appreciating the target of 3.62 lakh metric tonne (MT) of paddy procurement next year in the state by the department, Sonowal directed for video recording the farmers’ stories whose paddy would be procured by the government with good prices and release those videos in platforms like social media so that other farmers would get inspiration to work hard and produce more. Among other agencies, Food Corporation of India (FCI) alone has set a target of procuring 2 lakh MT paddy from state farmers.
In view of the spiralling onion prices and prevailing market conditions, the Chief Minister instructed for taking pre-emptive action for keeping the prices of the essential kitchen commodity under control next year by contacting agencies like National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and National Federation of Farmers’ Procurement, Processing and Retailing Cooperatives of India Ltd. (NACOF) etc. for procuring onions from Nasik on state government’s behalf and stock it for sending to state later.
The Chief Minister also directed the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to write a letter to Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for providing extra LPG connections to the poor women under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna apart from those beneficiaries selected from SECC data.
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