New Delhi: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Thursday said his government will not implement the
Centre`s decision to allow FDI in retail trade.
"We have decided to oppose FDI in retail sector. The
decision will not be implemented in Chhattisgarh," Singh told
reporters here after releasing a monograph on the Public
Distribution System (PDS) adopted by the state government.
Addressing the gathering, Singh spoke on the state`s
development model and its PDS system.
"The target for Chhattisgarh is to get rid of problems
like infant mortality rate, maternal mortality ratio and
malnutrition among children. Naxals have been there in
Chhattisgarh for last 40 years but now we need to think ahead
as well", Singh said.
He rejected the proposals for cash transfer as a measure
to ensure food security and said "cash transfer in the name of
food security is nothing but shying away from responsibility.
How can one decide how much money is sufficient for a family"?
Sharing the details of PDS network for paddy, he said,
"we have become one of the biggest paddy producers in the
country and we worked very hard for this. 75 per cent of our
population is dependent on agriculture and the rest on minor
produce industry."
To enhance agri produce, the state adopted a
three-pronged approach which aims at improving production,
procurement and distribution system, the Chief Minister said.
"To ensure good production, we have brought down the
interest rate for agri loans and provided two lakh new water
pumps for irrigation. We give a Rs 50,000 subsidy on
irrigation pumps," he said.
"Our paddy production has risen from 55 lakh metric tonne
to 90 lakh metric tonne and we transfer Rs 6000 crore worth of
funds as payment to farmers after collecting their products,"
Raman Singh said.
Noting that there is no shortage of electricity in the
state, he said "Chhattisgarh has made an investment of Rs
7000 crore in power generation sector and in another three
years, we will make a fresh investment of Rs 17,000 crore."
On plugging the holes in distribution system, he said "we
identified the problems in distribution network and
successfully addressed them. We have also introduced legal
reforms to ensure that there are no leakages and wastages in
the distribution network", Singh said.
He said the state government increased the commission of
PDS shops from Rs 4 per quintal to Rs 35 and since then there
is no report of any hoarding and theft of paddy in the state,
he said.
Chhattisgarh has taken steps to ensure food security for
people by providing them essential commodities like salt,
pulses, edible oil, he said.
PTI
