Kathua: Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Tribal Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today inaugurated Working Standard Laboratory of Legal Metrology Department at Kathua constructed at the cost of Rs. 66 lakh.

The Minister, while speaking on the occasion, said the Legal Metrology Department has been entrusted with a noble responsibility of safeguarding the interests of the consumers and it is our prime concern to see that all schemes in this regard are implemented in letter and spirit.

“The objective of LMD is to safeguard the interests of the consumers by ensuring that goods bought by them have adequate quality and quantity as claimed by the manufacturers,” the Minister said, adding, the laboratory will ensure standardization in measurements to the trading community and people of the district.

MLA, Rajiv Jasrotia was also present on the occasion.

The Minister said issuance of fresh ration cards, digitization of data, sanctioning of new Fair Price Shops, introduction of electronic weighing scales, linking ration tickets with Aadhaar, tracking made mandatory through GPS installed on commodities transporting vehicles, vigilance and monitoring committees constituted at village level to monitor distribution of food grains/kerosene oil are some of the important steps taken by the department for streamlining ration supply in the state.

The Minister stressed on creating permanent procurement centers at Kathua and directed the Deputy Commissioner to identify land for establishing six procurement centers. He also informed that this year 1.5 lakh MT paddy has been procured in Jammu region for the benefit of farmers.

Congratulating all the stakeholders for achieving 70 per cent coverage under PMUY in J&K, the Minister said that efforts need to be streamlined for 100 per cent penetration of this scheme so that left outs can be accommodated and benefit of the scheme can be percolated to the needy people. He directed the DC to immediately submit a list of left out PMUY beneficiaries so that they can be covered under the scheme at the earliest.

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