GK NEWS NETWORK
Jammu, Mar 28: Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Qamar Ali Akhoon today faced  an ‘embarrassing situation’ in the lower house when  Speaker, Muhammad Akbar Lone reprimanded him for giving incomplete reply to a question, besides facing strong resentment from the members from either side who expressed concern over the shortage of PDS ration in the state.
 The Speaker interrupted the minister when he failed to give details about the constituency wise number of those families who are yet to be given ration cards, as sought by the PDP member Rafi Ahmed Mir in his question.
 While the minister said that after the completion of 2011 census all the left out families would be given ration cards, the Speaker asked the minister to be specific and clear while giving reply to the quarries of the members. “Your answer is incomplete, you have ignored the main point, answer the specific question”, Speaker said.
 On this Rafi Ahmed Mir demanded that if government is unable to reply the question, it should be deferred. “If they cannot provide me details, Speaker sir, the question should be deferred”, Mir demanded.
 However, Lone ignored the plea of the member and continued the proceedings of the house.
 Earlier, cutting across party lines most of the members expressed concern over the ration shortage in the state and failure of the department to streamline its distribution.
  Keeping in view the concerns of the members, the Speaker   clubbed all the questions on CAPD listed for today’s proceedings.
 Raising the issue, BJP member  Chaman Lal Gupta said that while the government   claims that it  was giving 35 kg of ration   to the people, but in many areas the scale  is much less. “We ask the minister to ensure that fixed quantity of ration is supplied to the people. We have raised the issue time and again”, he said.
 Charanjeet Singh, who had wanted to know about the supply position in Kathua, said that ration is being supplied on the basis of 2001 census, despite the directions that it should be distributed as per the present requirement of the area. “My people are not supplied required quantity and they have to wait for weeks because of the back log clearance. Department is doing nothing to streamline this process”, he said. 
 Hakim Muhammad Yasin also took the minister for task complaining that Kandi belt in his constituency was not getting regular supply. “A committee was constituted to recommend measures for streamlining the supply position in the state but these were never implemented. Kandi area in my belt is suffering as the supply position in very bad there. I urge the minister to pay special attention to the far-flung villages and hamlets in my area”.
 Expressing concern over ration supply situation in his constituency, G.M Saroori pointed that many   BPL families of his constituency have not received any ration from the department till yesterday. “I received number of calls today that no ration has been supplied to them despite the fact that the month   is ending. What is government doing to address their concern; it has become a routine now in most of the areas in my constituency”.
 Abdul Rehman Veeri also raised the issue of the people who are yet to get ration cards. “I had also sought details of such families but in its reply government said that one lakh people are registered, how you provide ration to others who are not registered, especially those falling below the poverty line” Veeri questioned.
 Mohammad Irfan Shah asked for the reasons behind frequent shortage of essential commodities like rice, Atta, Sugar and kerosene oil in Batmaloo and said that be it summer or winter months, the residents of this locality always face severe shortage of essential commodities.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST