Welcome to Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department

Proper and rigorous Enforcement of the provisions of legislative measures like Essential Commodities Act and Control orders issued there under is critical to prevent black marketing of essential commodities and for ensuing smooth functioning of the Public Distribution System. In order to take up enforcement activities, Enforcement Squads have been constituted at three levels i.e. State, Zonal and District level under the Department.

Frequent checks/ raids are being made by the State, zonal and district level Enforcement Squads and action is being taken against the erring dealers and officials of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department. Enforcement activities of the State for the last three years have been given in the table below.

Sl. No.		2004	2005	2006	2007 up to 3/07
1.	No. of Checks made	70,872	64,755	71,530	18800
2.	No. of raids made	932	1444	1373	162
3.	No. of P. R. filed	71	159	133	31
4.	No. of persons arrested	8	5	36	03
5.	No. of persons convicted	--	3	1	0
6.	No. of licence suspended	404	772	386	51
7.	No. of licence cancelled	223	284	274	47
8.	Amount of security deposit forfeited	Rs.41,800/-	Rs.1,22,250/-	Rs.2,60,257/-	Rs.38412/-
9.	Value of E.C’s seized	Rs.57.51 lakhs	Rs.74.01 lakhs	Rs.89.02 lakhs	Rs.17.60 lakhs
10.	Value of E.C. confiscated	Rs.5.87 lakhs	Rs.8.92 lakhs	Rs.25 lakhs	Rs.3.15 lakhs
11.	Amount of fine imposed	Rs.8.66 lakhs	Rs.14.82 lakhs	Rs.7.79 lakhs	Rs.0.65 lakhs

The committee enquired whether any study has been conducted by any independent organisation to assess the diversion of foodgrains.

The committee was informed that a Study Report on “Performance Evaluation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)” has been published by the Programme Evaluation Organisation of the Planning Commission in March, 2005. This study has estimated leakage and diversion of subsidized foodgrains in the TPDS in respect of 16 major States in the country.

This study has categorized the States in various groups based on estimated leakage and diversion of subsidized foodgrains in TPDS.

Orissa has been classified among the Group of States with Very Low Leakage (Less than 10%) at Fair Price Shop (FPS) level alongwith H.P., West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, M.P. and Assam. Orissa has been classified, on the basis of overall leakage of TPDS foodgrains, in the Group of States with Low Leakage (Up to 25%) alongwith A.P, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The committee enquired about the action taken / proposed to be taken for curbing malpractices by dealers and preventing diversion of PDS commodities. The Committee was informed that following steps have been taken by the Department:

An intensive campaign is being taken up for three months starting from 1st July, 2007 to conduct intensive checks / raids on the dealers and to generate consumer awareness
Priority is being given to the Gram Panchayats (GP’s) and Women Self Help Groups (WSHG’s) for grant of PDs retail licenses. At present about 340 GP’s and 6700 WSHG’s are distributing PDS commodities.
Block and Town level Advisory Committees have been reconstituted under the chairmanship of Hon’ble MLA’s. The Retailer Level Advisory Committees have been reconstituted under the chairmanship of the Sarpanch / Municipal Councilor concerned.
Fair Price shops have been allowed to sell non-PD items and to operate public telephone booths in order to improve their viability.
Instructions have been issued to Collectors to take up social audit of PDS dealers.
All Executive Magistrates and BDO’s have been given powers of search and seizure of PDS dealers under the OPDS (Control) order, 2002.
Steps are being taken for replacement of all ration cards during the current financial year.
Action is being taken for filling up vacant posts of Inspectors of Supplies in order to overcome the problem of shortage of staff.
Computerisation and use of Information Technology (IT) tools is being planned to increase the level of transparency and accountability in the PDS.
The guidelines for appointment of storage agents have been revised to provide for appointment of local educated persons as storage agents.

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Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare Department
Govt of Orissa, Bhubaneswar