GUWAHATI, Sept 21 - Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today reviewed the functioning of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department at his conference room at Janata Bhawan.
The Chief Minister emphasised on strengthening of the department for effective public service delivery.
Stating that rising price of onion was a matter of concern for the people and the government, Sonowal directed the department to take effective steps immediately for controlling the spiralling prices of the essential kitchen commodity.
An official release stated that as the Chief Minister was apprised about the possibility of procuring onion from National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and providing the same at controlled prices in the market, he instructed the authorities concerned for taking necessary action in that regard so that the State�s monthly onion requirement of around 60,000 MTs could be met.
The meeting also approved the scheme of Rs 1 lakh each for more than 100 beneficiaries for setting up �Amar Dokan on Wheels� (mobile fair price shops) as a step to encourage unemployed youth entrepreneurs of the State.
Referring to the number of more than 38,000 existing fair price shops in the State, Sonowal stressed the need for rationalizing the number of shops which was more than required for the State�s population and providing alternative livelihood means for many existing fair shop owners.
Sonowal also directed the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to devise a mechanism to generate self-employment opportunities for the rural youth through setting up of cold storage facilities and warehouses which could be run on PPP mode. He emphasized on the need to adopt latest technologies to plug leakages in the public distribution system and make entire government mechanism transparent.
Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department Phani Bhushan Choudhury, Principal Secretary of the Department Biswaranjan Samal, and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Lohia were also present in the meeting among other officials.
