Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: Odisha would introduce a State Food Security Act soon, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said while addressing the district collectors here on Wednesday.

Speaking on the second day of the collectors’ conference at Secretariat, Patnaik said the Act would have an emphasis on agricultural production, marketing and ensure equitable distribution of food grains.

Disclosing the government’s plans to increase farm production, he added the government will spend Rs 5,000 crore each year on irrigation projects.

“On the production front, all efforts will be made to raise productivity by way of creating additional irrigation potential to the tune of 10 lakh hectare within the next five years,” Patnaik said.

The government would create a network of storage facilities with sound connectivity with marketing avenues and access to an SMS-based information flow, he further said.

Meanwhile, the CM expressed his unhappiness with the performance of district collectors in implementing the provisions of Black Marketing Act.

“They should personally undertake surprise checks frequently and take steps to prevent black marketing of kerosene,” he said, adding that private retailers should be completely replaced with institution-based public distribution system in a time-bound manner.

Highlighting his government’s achievements, the chief minister said Odisha is the second State in the country to allocate special budget to the farm sector. Even the State government was awarded with ‘Krishi Karman’ for its achievements, he added.

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