Bureaucrats Magazine – Breaking News -Ms. Nivedita Shukla Verma IAS (Uttar Pradesh 1991) presently Additional Secretary, Department of Defence, Ministry of Defence , has been given in-situ upgradation as Special Secretary, Department of Defence, Ministry of Defence.…….
Bureaucrats Magazine -PERSONALITY: Nivedita is awake so that no one sleeps hungry…..Nivedita Shukla Verma, posted as UP’s Principal Secretary, Food, is engaged in turning into reality the directive of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that no one should sleep hungry.
Bureaucrats Magazine –Perhaps, in the development of qualities within a person, his name also has an effect. That’s why a couple from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh named their daughter after Sister Nivedita. Sister Nivedita was an Anglo-Irish social worker, teacher and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. He helped the patriots who fought for India’s freedom and made a remarkable contribution in the field of women’s education as a mission.
Bureaucrats Magazine –This daughter of Jabalpur Nivedita became an IAS officer. Amidst the silence of the lockdown, Principal Secretary, Food and Supplies, Nivedita Shukla Verma sitting in her office on the second floor of Annexe Bhawan, Lucknow, engaged in a mission to make Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s order “No one sleeps hungry” a reality have happened.
Bureaucrats Magazine –As soon as the infection of Corona increased, the Chief Minister had announced to distribute free ration to the helpless in the state. Till now, the food department of the state was giving ration to 14.5 crore beneficiaries on three and a half crore ration cards at the subsidized rate of wheat two rupees per kg and rice three rupees per kg. This ration is distributed through 80 thousand ration shops of the state between 01st to 12th of every month.
Bureaucrats Magazine –For them, it is a challenging task to lift seven and a half lakh metric tonnes of food grains every month and distribute them through a total of 80 thousand ration shops in the state.
Bureaucrats Magazine –The Food Department had installed EPOS machines in almost all the shops through which ration is being distributed through biometric system. As soon as the Chief Minister’s order was received, Nivedita issued an order on March 19 that job card holders of MNREGA, registered laborers from the Labor Department and daily wage earners who do not have ration cards, should also be made cards by running a campaign. .
Bureaucrats Magazine –As soon as the lockdown was announced, a large number of migrant laborers also started reaching UP. In such a situation, as soon as instructions were received from the Chief Minister, the work of making ration cards for these migrant laborers was also added. Ration cards were made for those who had Aadhaar cards. There were many people who did not have any documents, He was provided with a relief kit through the District Magistrate. In the campaign that lasted for ten days, ration cards of five and a half lakh people were made in the entire state.
Bureaucrats Magazine –After the implementation of the lockdown, the biggest challenge before the food department was to distribute ration to the people. Meanwhile, it was also announced to distribute five kg free ration under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. There are three and a half crore ration card holders in UP and ration was distributed to fourteen and a half crore beneficiaries once a month.
Now due to distribution of ration by the central government, there was a challenge to complete the entire process twice a month in the same system.
Bureaucrats Magazine –The Food Department has decided to continue distributing rations on ration cards from April 1 to 12, and in the meantime, the Central Government’s free ration should also be started from the godown of FCI. Five kilos of rice received from the central government was to be distributed from 15th to 26th of the month.
Bureaucrats Magazine –The second challenge was how to distribute ration following the guidelines through EPOS machines? For this all the Kotdars were trained through mobile. How to keep social distancing?
Bureaucrats Magazine –There should be arrangement of soap and water outside the shop. The ePOS machine should be cleaned with a sanitizer after every use. Since this whole process was to take a lot of time, for the first time arrangements were made to distribute ration from quota shops from 6 am to 9 pm.
Bureaucrats Magazine –All the District Magistrates were given the responsibility of monitoring the distribution of ration. Live data capture was arranged from 6 am itself. Technical team has been put on alert to repair the server. The “District Supply Officer” (DSO) kept uploading the photos of the Kotdars continuously on the WhatsApp group and the same sequence continued from the District Magistrate to the officials of the government.There are many needy Antyodaya card holders who are single unit, Divyangjan and those who have got new ration cards were monitored separately.
Bureaucrats Magazine –Ration was distributed on 3 crore 23 lakh ration cards on the first of April. Of these, forty lakh were Antyodaya card holders who were to get free ration. Free ration was given to the helpless by taking a list from the Rural Development Department, Labor Department and Urban Development Department. This free ration was distributed through Kotedar.The food department reimbursed the Kotdars for this free distributed ration at the rate of two rupees per kg of wheat and three rupees per kg of rice. For this, the department reimbursed Rs 64 crore to the Kotdars.
