Hyderabad, August 14: Chief minister K Rosaiah directed the civil supplies department to constantly monitor the prices of essential commodities and control them. He said that the department should see to it that prices did not go up and should resort to market interventions and other measures whenever and wherever needed.
Rosaiah today reviewed the activities of civil supplies department.
He was informed that the prices of essential commodities were under control.
Officials said that the prices of rice, red gram, black gram and green gram were showing a downward trend. However, prices of onions, sugar, bengal gram, edible oils, chillies and tamarind were still on the higher side, they said.
To control the prices, the collectors were instructed to inspect the godowns and unearth the hoarded stock and order an interim disposal of them, Rosaiah was informed.
Task force teams have been deputed to districts for inspecting the business premises of the dealers and book cases if stocks were hoarded in excess of the permissible limits, he was informed.
Presently, 9,542 tons of red gram per month was being allotted to BPL families and they were delivered to the card holders at Rs 55 per kg and the quantity being given to the card holders was half a kg, officials said. A quantity of 2 lakh tons of red gram has been distributed so far through PDS, they informed.
Civil supplies commissioner Sanjay Jaju informed the chief minister that the department would complete the enrolment of over 3 crore people in the seven districts of Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Adilabad, East Godavari, Srikakulam, Chittoor and Anantapur through biometric system with the coordination of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for issuing smart cards.
The officials said that a system to provide new LPG connections through e-seva and aponline have already been put in place. Citizens were now able to submit their request for new gas connections through aponline and e-seva centres, they said.
Food and civil supplies minister J Krishna Rao and other officials participated in the meeting.
–Agencies