Nawanshahr - Punjab State Food Commission member Vijay Dutt today visited various government ration depots of Balachore and Khatkar Kalan of district Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.
 Conducted surprise visits to government schools and Anganwadi centers to inspect beneficial schemes. Commission member Vijay Dutt checked Balachaur Government Primary Smart School and Anganwadi Center No. 5 and Khatkar Kalan Government Primary Smart School, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Government High School, Anganwadi Center No. 1 and Government Ration Depot.
Commission member Vijay Dutt directed schools to maintain mid-day meal food taste register, provide clean food to children and maintain cleanliness while preparing and serving food. The member of the commission discussed mid-day meal with the school students and also ate mid-day meal with the children himself. TDS of drinking water in schools was also checked by the commission member. The member instructed that the TDS and quality of drinking water in the school should be periodically checked by the concerned department. Apart from this, the commission directed to conduct health check-up of school students and also directed to conduct medical check-up of mid-day meal workers.
Commission member Vijay Dutt while checking the Anganwadi centers instructed the in-charges and helpers to inform as many beneficiaries as possible about the latest schemes of the government.
During the visit, the commission member gave instructions to install helpline number of Punjab State Food Commission in all government schools, government ration depots and Anganwadi centers in the district. He said that if any beneficiary has any complaint regarding the schemes of the National Food Security Act, he can register his complaint on the commission's helpline number 9876764545.
Vijay Dutt expressed happiness over the introduction of biometric machines in all ration depots but still objected to the depot holders calling the beneficiaries several days in advance to cut the slips and later to collect the wheat again. Vijay Dutt said that a poor person works as a daily wage labourer, it is not good to call him repeatedly, so the beneficiary should be called only once, his slip should be cut and wheat should be given immediately.
He further issued instructions that senior citizens whose thumbs do not work in the biometric machine and were not able to avail their benefits, can now avail the benefits through the eye scanner that comes with the biometric machine.