SRINAGAR: – To decongest the Srinagar city, the State Government has decided to relocate the go-downs of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution Department (CA&PDD) from the highly congested Shaheed Gunj area in the civil lines.
The issue was raised by the Chief Minister, Ms Mehbooba Mufti with the Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan who called on the former at her official residence here this afternoon.
Minister for CA&PD, Choudhary Zulfkar Ali and Minister of State for CA&PD, Mr Ajay Nanda were also present at the meeting.
Ms Mehbooba sought Union Ministrys technical and financial assistance for relocating these go-downs to the outskirts of Srinagar to decongest the core area. We have almost all our important hospitals and other critical infrastructure in the vicinity of these go-downs and movement of trucks to and from these go-downs causes massive inconvenience to the commuters, she said and added the Government has decided to shift these go-downs to the city peripheries to decongest the city.
The Chief Minister said around 100 kanals of land which would be available in Shaheed Gunj area due to relocation of FCI go-downs can be used to create recreational and parking facilities for the people.
It was decided in the meeting that till a permanent site is identified for relocating the FCI go-downs from Shaheed Gunj area, the Corporation can for the time being shift the storage facility to Lethpora, where enough space is available.
The Union Minister asked the Dy General Manager, FCI to personally visit the Shaheed Gunj storage facility on Monday and ensure the shifting of these storage facilities to outside the city at the earliest.
The Chief Minister also sought additional food grains for J&K to meet the requirement for implementing Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Food Entitlement Scheme (MMSFES) which was formally rolled out by the State Government. The Government will be spending a whopping Rs 400 crore on the purchase of grains for distribution among the people at subsidized rates under MMSFES.
The other issues raised by the Chief Minister with Mr Paswan included providing funds to J&K on 90:10 ratio under e-PDS scheme for end-to-end computerization, construction of Silos at Anantnag, Budgam, Pulwama, Kathua, Samba and Udhampur, adjustment of CA&PDD laborers in FCI, and financial support for setting up of 11 Food Testing Laboratories in the State.
Mr Paswan assured the Chief Minister that the issues flagged by her would be addressed on priority. The Minister said he will be specially convening a meeting in New Delhi next week to hash-out these issues.
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