Himanta Biswa Sarma Sarma stressed on minimizing transportation cost of essential commodities (FILE)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday directed the concerned authorities to take steps for withdrawal of ration cards from all ineligible beneficiaries above the poverty line.
The Chief Minister, reviewing the implementation of the National Food Security Act state with officials of the Food and Civil Supply and Consumer Affairs Department (FCS&CA), Cooperation Department, directed that the rules be amended to ensure Rs 143 to every fair price shop as transportation charge for each quintal of ration.
The FCS&CA department will be allocated funds from now onwards from the budget for providing to all village panchayat cooperative societies and this step would significantly help the poor people, the chief minister observed that such steps would significantly benefit the poor people.
Mr Sarma also stressed on minimizing transportation cost of essential commodities and said that from now onwards the cooperative societies will have to play the role of supervisors to ensure proper implementation of NFSA.
He also directed that the number of fair price shops be rationalised according to the number of ration card holders.
Minister of Agriculture and Cooperation departments Atul Bora and senior government officials were present at the meeting.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)