Meghalaya government on November 13 unveiled a ‘food security’ initiative aimed at raising awareness among citizens about the measures in place to guarantee access to food grains for the most vulnerable. The campaign involves engaging key stakeholders, community-based institutions, the general public, and various partners to work towards achieving ‘zero hunger’ in the state.
This year the department, led by minister-in-charge, Comingone Ymbon, is strategizing its efforts to provide better services to the public and meeting the sustainable development goal-2 with a global theme ‘zero hunger’.
“The department is exploring the use of social, mainstream and community-based media to communicate the verticals of the department and apply hyper-local approach to reason with the public on pertinent matters linked to the provisions of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013,” Ymbon said.
He said the objectives of the campaign is to create general awareness about food security being a right of the citizen and calls upon the public at ground level to work together towards ‘zero hunger’ to meet the need of the public at the bottom of the poverty pyramid.
“The ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme (ONORC) will also be taken up as one of the salient features of the National Food Security Act,” he said, adding that the campaign also aims to streamline registration and services by encouraging the public to seed their Aadhaar card and registered mobile number with their ration card to enable the card-holding family obtain maximum benefits.
Ymbon said the campaign will widely inform the public through toll free helpline 1967, the use of the electronic point of sale and other mandates of the department.
The ‘food security’ campaign plan includes outdoor, print, electronic, social media and public engagement and wishes to draw maximum input with engagement with the public.
“The department is also releasing a song and music video both in Khasi and Garo to call upon the beneficiaries and impress upon each citizen the importance of collaborative efforts to ensure that each and every member of the public is assured of food grains,” the statement issued by the Meghalaya department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs said.
