Roshan Kumar May 30, 2018 00:00 IST
Ram Vilas Paswan in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh
Patna: Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday highlighted the Narendra Modi government's achievements in various sectors such as opening up of Jan Dhan accounts, social security schemes for the poor, Ujjwala Yojana, power connectivity, construction of highways and roads. He was marking the fourth anniversary of the NDA government.
"Under the national food security act, the prices of subsidised wheat and rice given at Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg respectively to more than 51 crore people in the country will not be revised till June 2019," Paswan said. "The Centre has not revised prices of subsidised foodgrain since 2013. It shows that the Centre cares for the poor."
On pulses and farmers' agitation at Mokama taal (lake) area, Paswan said: "We have come to know that this year there has been buffer stock production of pulses, which is a good sign. The government is concerned about farmers' problems and we have decided to strengthen procurement of pulses from farmers."
He said he will meet Veena Devi, his party's MP from Munger, who on Monday sat on a dharna against her governments in the state and the Centre over farmers' policy.
Paswan said his department has linked over 2.62 crore ration cards with Aadhaar, checking over 12 crore dummy beneficiaries and saving over Rs 17,000 crore. He claimed that with introduction of Aadhaar-based e-PoS machines, which would use biometric identification, the number of dummy beneficiaries will come down further.
He refused to say how many seats his party will get to fight under NDA alliance. "But I know that the NDA will remain intact during Lok Sabha polls," he said.
He said the government is serious about introducing Consumer Protection Act. "The bill has been passed from Lok Sabha and is pending with standing committee." Under the new consumer protection bill there is strict punishment, including jail terms and hefty fines for misleading advertisements and food adulteration.