The Assam Chief Minister also directed the department for holding a launch meeting of the scheme towards last week of January next year and to look for means to safely dispose the plastic bags containing sugar without causing environmental harm.
Around 6 lakh beneficiaries would be benefitted by free sugar distribution scheme in the tea garden areas where each beneficiary would receive a packet of 2 kg each per month.
Reviewing the functioning of the department at his conference room at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati Sonowal emphasised on strengthening of the department for effective public service delivery.
The Assam Chief Minister called on the department to spread the right message about the scheme through which the State Government would strive to fulfil nutritional requirements lacking in the diets of tea garden population.
Appreciating the target of 3.62 lakh metric tonne (MT) of paddy procurement next year in the state by the department, Sonowal directed for video recording the farmers’ stories whose paddy would be procured by the government with good prices and release those videos in platforms like social media so that other farmers would get inspiration to work hard and produce more.
Among other agencies, Food Corporation of India (FCI) alone has set a target of procuring 2 lakh MT paddy from state farmers. In view of the spiraling onion prices and prevailing market conditions, the Assam Chief Minister instructed for taking preemptive action for keeping the prices of the essential kitchen commodity under control next year by contacting agencies like National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and National Federation of Farmers’ Procurement, Processing and Retailing Cooperatives of India Ltd. (NACOF) etc. for procuring onions from Nasik on state government’s behalf and stock it for sending to state later.
Sonowal also directed the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to write a letter to Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for providing extra LPG connections to the poor women under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna apart from those beneficiaries selected from SECC data.
“I had already taken up the matter with Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and latter had assured of positive response in this regard. The target of providing LPG connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna in Assam had already been achieved according to SECC data,” Sonowal said.
Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department Phani Bhushan Choudhury, Media Adviser to the Chief Minister Hrishikesh Goswami, Principal Secretary of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department Biswaranjan Samal, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Lohia were also present in the meeting among other officials of the concerned departments.