Govt does away with storage agent system

BHUBANESWAR: At last, the State Government has decided to abolish the storage agent system as per the recommendation of the Wadhwa Committee. A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday. Though the State Government had decided in principle to do away with the system since long, it was put in cold storage due to strong opposition from district-level politicians. According to the decision, the rice- receiving centres will be converted into departmental storage centres. Essential items will be sent from these centres to the fair price shops.  The Chief Minister directed the district collectors through video conferencing to ensure that this new scheme was executed in a transparent manner. He asked them to make arrangements for godowns to store food items. He said the consumers should be supplied with food items regularly under the PDS. Naveen also asked the district collectors to ensure that proper transport arrangements are made for transferring items from the storage centres to the fair price shops. He said as the State Government decided to create new posts in the Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Department, steps should be taken for their capacity building.   Steps should also be taken for launching massive propaganda to make people aware of the new scheme. Among others, Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Minister Niranjan Pujari, Secretary Madhusudan Padhi, Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik and senior officials attended.