Odisha to have a Food Commissioner soon

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 26:

The Odisha government will soon appoint a State Food Commissioner as mandated by the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

This was decided at a high level review meeting on the implementation of NFSA presided over by chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here.

It was revealed at the meeting that the registration and digitization of beneficiaries of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar block areas have been completed on a pilot basis. Of the 1,5,36,640 applications received during the roll-out phase, digitization of 96,86,440 applications have been completed till yesterday.

Special emphasis has been given on proper verification of these applications.

It may be mentioned that the Centre has asked all states to implement NFSA from October 1 this year after completing all groundwork for it by September 30.

Apart from the appointment of State Food Commissioner, the meeting decided to appoint District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO) in the rank of Additional District Magistrate (ADM).

Stating that food security is an important programme, the chief minister advised the officials to discharge their duties with utmost responsibility in the identification of the beneficiaries. He also asked them to strike out ineligible beneficiaries from the list to ensure eligible beneficiaries avail all benefits under the Act.

The chief minister directed the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department to prepare a concrete action plan within a week after receiving feedback from the district collectors and inputs from the neighbouring states on their modus operandi for implementation of the Act.

He also asked the department to introduce a new grievance redressal mechanism and make the Rational Card Management System (RCMS) more organised and people-oriented.

Among others, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Sanjay Dasburma, chief secretary GC Pati, principal secretary Madhusudan Padhi, Development Commissioner UN Behera and senior officials of the concerned department were present at the meeting.