Soon, monitoring bodies across all districts in state

Kolkata: State Food and Supplies department will set up a district level monitoring committee in all the districts of Bengal to monitor the distribution of essential food grains across the state.

State Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriya Mullick on Monday said that in all the district headquarters, there will be a monitoring committee of the department which will supervise the public distribution system. This aims at ensuring a smooth distribution of food grains. The committee will also ensure that the people are getting quality food grains. The minister stated at the side lines of a programme organised to celebrate the "World Food Day" at Khadya Bhavan on Monday.

"The district-level monitoring committee will visit various ration shops and the outlets involved in the distribution of essential food grains and check the quality of food grains. The slogan of our department is 'Food for all' and our target is to provide food grains to all the people at a subsidised rate," Mullick said.

State Finance minister Amit Mitra who attended the programme said Chief Minister's brain child Khadya Sathi has brought a revolution across the state as 8.34 crore people from Bengal have already been covered under this scheme. Around 91 percent of the state's total population is getting benefits of the scheme. In the areas like Jangalmahal, Singur, Hills and in many other parts, people were deprived of food but now they have been brought under this scheme.

Around 8.34 crore beneficiaries in the state have been brought under the Khadya Sathi scheme in the state. People are getting rice and wheat at a subsidised rate of Rs 2 per kg. Earlier, the department had a capacity of storing 62,000 metric tonne food grains but many more godowns have come up with a total capacity of holding more than 6 lakh metric tonne of food grains. The department has a target of setting up a total of 14 lakh metric tonne capacity godown. Some of these godowns are being constructed across the state. The state government has allotted a fund of Rs 800 crore for setting up the godowns, Mullick maintained.

Mullick also said that his department has urged the Food Corporation of India (FCI) expressing its interest to provide the FCI with the food grains that are produced in the state. In the current year, the state government has procured 39 lakh 52 thousand metric tonne paddy from 6 lakh and 21 thousand farmers at a minimum support price.

"Bengal is ready to supply quality food grains to the FCI as the quantity of the procurement of food grains by the department has gone up by a huge margin. The quality of grains that the FCI supplies is poorer than what the state government supplies through the rationing system. Our department can supply food grains for the mid-day meals at all the ICDS centres too," Mullick maintained.

He also thanked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who laid enormous emphasis on the distribution of food among people. The state government has increased the allotment of funds for procuring more food grains.

He also said that his department has taken up a scheme for distributing rice, wheat and other essential food grains completely free of cost among the Toto tribes in various parts of North Bengal.