Staff Reporter

Shillong, May 2: Minister-in-charge of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Comingone Ymbon today chaired a review meeting held at the headquarters of the United Nations World Food Programme India, New Delhi.

The meeting was attended by Pravin Bakshi, Commissioner & Secretary, Consumer Affairs Department Government of Meghalaya and Shai Kupar War, Officer on Special Duty with Mrs Elisabeth Faure, Country Director, India and Eric Kenefick, Deputy Director & Ankit Sood, Unit Head of Social Protection and Supply chain of United Nations World Food Programme India.

The meeting was held to assess various technology-driven initiatives undertaken as per the Memorandum of Understanding between the State Department and the United Nations World Food Programme India. like introducing Grain ATM (Annapurti) in the State, Improving Aadhaar seeding, Usage of electronic Point-of-Sale (e-POS) to ensure transparency and accountability, capturing all FPS GPS Coordinates for route optimization and tracking of movement of food grains across the State to prevent diversion of food grains, Main stream Data Analytics in PDS Monitoring system for data-driven decision making, Alternate storage mechanism to minimize storage loss and prepare strategic plan and the way forward for Food Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs the next 5 years etc.

The United Nations World Food Programme has developed a tracking system for the State to monitor the movement of food grain in real-time. Conducted IEC Campaign on ONORC developed posters which help migrant workers to lift ration from any FPS located across the state and country.

The Food Civil Supplies & Consumers Affairs and United Nations World Food Programme India have conducted IEC Campaigns on Grievance Redressal for building awareness among the people on the feedback or complaint mechanism. Going forward, a Strategic comprehensive plan will be developed for the next five years with a special focus on enhancing nutrition security and making the Public Distribution System robust and transparent.