In a holistic developmental approach, the state government has taken some significant decisions to strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) and will start supply of subsidized mustard oil and millets through ration shops across the state.

Addressing a press conference here at Civil Secretariat on Wednesday afternoon Food and Civil Supply Minister Sushanta Chowdhury accompanied by secretary of the department Raval Hemendra Kumar and Director Nirmal Adhikari said that as per the ‘Sankalp Patra’ (pre-poll promises), the department has taken the initiative to introduce subsidized mustard oil in all 2048 ration shops across the state.

Chowdhury said that the department in future along with supply of rice, wheat, sugar and pulses in ration shops, will start the supply of millets .

“The Prime Minister of Narendra Modi has a dream to provide more vitamins and mineral added food to the poor people of the country and he has stressed on supply of millets through PDS,” said Chowdhury and added that to fulfill the dream, the state government has taken the initiative to supply the millets through ration shops.

Highlighting the different initiatives of the Food and Civil Supply department, the Minister said that among 2048 ration shops, altogether 765 ration shops would be developed as ‘model ration shop’ and to implement the plan, a total of 75 ration shops from each district of the state has been identified.

Apart from these, 165 ration shops run by cooperative society will also be convert into model ration shops, said Chowdhury and added that departmentwill give onetime financial support of Rs. 10,000 to each ration shop to convert their fair price shop into a model shop, which will strengthen the PDS in coming days.

He said that at present the state has 9,59,455 ration cards and soon the department will modify all these cards into smart cards.  The department has also taken a plan to provide insurance  facilities to 2048 ration shop dealers and their families, said Chowdhury and added that in coming days, the department will introduce a new scheme ‘Ration Mitra’ to provide PDS items at the doorstep of poor and the consumers suffering from diseases.

The Food department will also set up district wise infrastructure of the department and department has started distribution of fortified rice in Dhalai district and from next April, the department will start supplying fortified rice in other seven districts of the state.

Considering the coming rainy season, Chowdhury said that the  Food ,Civil Supply and Consumer Affairs is a very important department and the department will always be alert over seamless supply of the rationing items.

At present, the state has 2048 ration shops and among these 290 are run by women, said Chowdhury and added that altogether 9,59,769 families have ration cards with a total consumer of 37,23,401 persons.

He said that the state at present have 3,55,439 APL ration cards and , priority household families have 4,92,485, ‘Antodhoy’ cards have 1,08,946,  1205 more families have ration cards(Priority group) under the scheme of Chief Minister  Tea workers welfare scheme.

Till now, altogether 2882 Bru (Reang) families have been provided with Antodhoy ration cards, said Chowdhury and added that the scheme of ‘one nation one ration card’ is active across the state .

Giving details of the food grain stock of the state, the Minister said that at present the state has a stock of rice 63,198 metric tons, 5384 metric tons of wheat and also a stock of good number of days for other PDS items.

He also warned traders involved with black marketing and said that the department will take stringent action, if any trader is found to create an artificial crisis of food items and if they are involved with any hoarding of essential items.