Himachal Pradesh has done pretty well in realizing the goals of Targeted Public Distribution System and State has the lowest foodgrains leakage at Fair Price Shop (FPS) level. This was revealed by S.S. Parmar, Chief Secretary Himachal Pradesh while inaugurating Regional Conference of States Secretaries of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs of Northern State here today.
S.S. Parmar said that State has the lowest foodgrains leakage at FPS level which stands at 0.41 percent. He further said that the off-take in terms of kg/per household/per annum was highest in the State which stands at 266 as compared at National average of 165.25. He expressed a concern over foodgrain leakage due to ghost cards and said this needs to be checked and remedial measures needed to be taken.
Chief Secretary said that for the eradication of poverty, the first priority should be food security followed by health, education and women empowerment and suggested to coin a new slogan of FHEW to cover all these. He stressed upon the need for better co-ordination among the departments of Food, Health, Education and Women Empowerment for achieving the desired results.
S.S. Parmar said that the population of migrant labourers were high in the State which needed to be brought under PDS system and said that some mechanism should be evolved for it.
Parmar said that alongwith education and health, nutritional and educational deprivation of most Indian women needed to be tackled effectively. The practice of aborting the females even by affluent States was a matter of concern.