All India | Press Trust of India | Updated: October 15, 2016 17:51 IST
JAMMU: To keep a check on hoarding and black marketing of pulses across the country, the Union Government will soon start distribution of pulses through post offices.
"In the past, we have seen that the cost of pulses increased manifold due to black marketing and hoarding so the Union Government has decided to sell pulses through post offices whenever the need arises," Minister of Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters in Jammu today.
He said post offices were spread in the entire length and breadth of the country and can easily be used for the purpose of selling pulses at government rates.
"There is a huge network of post offices in the country, every village has a post office and whenever the need arises, we can use them to sell pulses. The required infrastructure is already available with the Centre and decision in this regard has already been taken," he
said.
The government has taken various measures against hoarders and black marketers due to which the prices of pulses have come down, he said.
The Government has started the process of linking the Aadhaar cards with ration card and so far 69 per cent of the task has been completed. He said so far two crore fake ration cards have been detected across the country.
"Around 10 crore people were getting ration on these fake ration cards which is a very huge number. Online allocation of food grains has been made for every state to maintain transparency," he said.