Full-fledged regional office of FCI to be in Imphal by January 2020: Ram Vilas Paswan

Imphal, September 20, 2019 (DIPR): There will be full-fledged regional office of FCI here in Imphal after about  3 months from now by January 2019. This was announced by Hon’ble  Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan at a press conference held at Classic Grande, Chingmeirong today.

A review meeting on FCI operations, PDS Computerization, procurement and other related matters of the North Eastern States was also conducted under the chairmanship of the Union Minister.

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan requested all the states for their active participation in creation of new storage capacities by identifying or offering suitable lands for construction of godowns so that the production and PDS operations go smoothly in the North Eastern States during the meeting.

He reviewed the position of storage capacity, its utilization, allocation under NFSA and lifting of foodgrains. He also directed that Depot Online System of FCI should be implemented in the entire North Eastern States during the meeting.

Talking to media persons, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan stated that there is a  Central policy for procuring essential commodities during times of natural calamities so there is no need to worry regarding Manipur experiencing drought problem in the last few months. There is enough buffer stock of almost 56, 000 tonnes, he assured.

He further highlighted that there are  FCI godowns  already in the 9 districts out of the 16 total districts in Manipur. There must be a godown in every district, whether an FCI godown or state godown of even a private godown, he also added.

Paswan gave assurance that there is no case of price rise in any of the essential commodities – rice, sugar etc. in the past few months at a general level in overall almost all the states of the country.

He also appealed the public of Manipur to avail of the benefits of Prime Minister’s Ayushman Bharat Yojana that is meant to benefit the poor people of the country.

CAF & PD Minister of Manipur, Shri Karam Shyam also informed that proposal for setting up 6 new godowns in Manipur have been sent to the Centre. Under the NFSA scheme, the state is supposed to get both rice and wheat foodgrains equally from the Centre but as Manipur is a state populated majority by rice eaters, the state gets mainly rice allocation from the Centre, he further stated.

Minister Karam Shyam stated that the state has achieved around 85%  beneficiaries under NFSA  out of the total 87 % target and also assured that full 100 % target will be accomplished after completion of AADHAR setting.

It may be mentioned that Food Storage Depot of FCI  will be inaugurated by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan at Bishnupur tomorrow.

Shri Ravikant, IAS, Secretary(F&PD), Government of India,  Ministry of Food, CAF&PD;  Shri D.V.Prasad,IAS, Chairman & Managing Director, Food Corporation of India and Food Secretaries of the North Eastern States attended the press briefing.