Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government with support from World Food Organisation (WFO) has mooted steps to open ‘Poshan Kendras’ to provide essential commodities at subsidised rates in the state, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Krushna Chandra Patra said Sunday.
As per the plan, at least 35 ‘Poshan Kendras’ will be opened in different places in Odisha on a pilot basis. Later, one such ration store will be opened in each panchayat of the state, he said.
Various essential commodities like rice, wheat, dal, etc will be provided to poor and lower-income groups at a subsidised rate. The subsidy money will be borne by both Odisha and Central governments, Patra said.
The minister said a team of officers from the Odisha government would visit Gujarat and New Delhi to study the functioning of ‘Poshan Kendras’ there.
“It is in the proposal stage now. We will present the details to the chief minister for his approval. After that, it can be rolled out,” he added.
In August last year, the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) of the Government of India, had launched the programme to transform 60 Fair Price Shops (FPSs) of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh into Jan Poshan Kendra (JPK).
These JPKs offer non-PDS commodities with a particular focus on nutrition-dense commodities at prices that are competitive with those in the open market.
The minister also informed media persons that the e-KYC (know your customer) verification is going on across the state, and a little more than 30 lakh ration card beneficiaries have not done their e-KYC verification.
“After the completion of the deadline (March 31), we will not remove the left-out beneficiaries immediately from the ration card list. Our field-level officials will visit the homes of the people who have not completed their e-KYC verification,” Patra said.
If the beneficiary is not there or he/she surrendered the card, then only such persons’ names will be removed from the public distribution system (PDS), he said.
He said that about 6.35 lakh people, who have applied to get included in the ration card list three or four years ago, will be included in the vacant positions. Field-level survey of the applicants is under progress now.
The government opened the portal for receiving applications from new eligible persons March 1, and so far, about 50,000 have applied. The new applicants, who will be found genuine during the field survey, will be included in the list in a later phase after completion of another field survey, he added.
