Parliament Question: Food Security and Consumer Welfare Mechanism

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3150 TO BE ANSWERED ON lITH MARCH, 2026 FOOD SECURITY AND CONSUMER WELFARE MECHANISM t3150. SHRI KANWAR SINGH TANWAR: Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTI'ON be pleased to state: (a): whether the Government has reviewed the effectiveness of the food security and consumer welfare mechanism in Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh, including the availability, quality and affordability of essential commodities, market price stability and protection of consumer Interests ; (b): if so, the details of the steps taken by the Government to ensure availability of essential commodities, price control measures, consumer awareness programmes, transparency and fairness across the local market and in the inspections carried out in the said district during the last three years; and (c): if not, the reasons therefor? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIM ATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA) (a) to (c): The Central Government is successfully implementing the National Food Security Act, 2013, which provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity. The Act provides for constitution of Vigilance Committees by State/UTs at the State, District, Block and fair price shop levels for ensuring transparency and proper functioning of the Targeted Public Distribution System and accountability of the functionaries in such system. The Central Government has formulated and issued a Quality Control Manual to uniforrnly maintain the quality standards of foodgrains from procurement to its distribution to the eligible beneficiaries through various social security programs. The Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and the Prevention of Black marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act (PBMMSEC Act), 1980 provide the legislative and administrative foundations to the Government to regulate prices, production, supply, distribution etc. of essential commodities for maintaining or increasing their supplies and forsecuring their equitable distribution and availability at fair prices, and to prevent hoarding/black- marketing of foodstuffs. In order to prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation, time to time stock limits are imposed on essential food items under the EC Act. Directives are issued to the States and UTs to enforce compliance to the stock limits by stockholding entities and follow-up meetings are held with the States/UTs to review the status of implementation. To monitor the stock of pulses with stockholding entities, namely, traders, millers, stockists, millers, importers and big chain retailers, a stock declaration portal was created for the entities to register and disclose stock of pulses held by them on a weekly basis. The status of registration and stock disclosure are monitored and reviewed with the stockholding entities. Further, the State Governments have been asked to hold regular meetings with various stakeholders at State and District levels and to keep strict vigil on prices, hoarding, speculative trading and profiteering, unfair and illegal trade practices like cartelling etc. In order to check cartelization, hoarding, and black-marketing of essential commodities, a Committee was constituted in 2016 under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs with the representatives of Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Income Tax and Delhi Police. So far 22 meetings of this group have been held SeR SeESeSc