Shirish Kapade, an officer of the rank of Assistant District Supply Officer, took the charge of FDO Malegaon on January 29th, 2023. (Pic: The Voice of Malegaon)
It was quite an unusual day at the Office of the Food Distribution Officer today. After a long period of time, the office looked lively as it was teeming with activities. An FDO staff was busy doing daily ration card update works. While another was seen in an urgency with some paper work.
Besides, a group of six to seven specially-abled men were sitting with Shirish Kapade, the new FDO, in his cabin and were narrating their ordeal to him. They were raising with the FDO a host of issues their group was facing.
Kapade who gave a patient hearing to their grievances assured them that he will surely draw out robust plan for ending their miseries once and for all. As he was speaking to this group, an FDO staff came in with a husband and wife pair with a complaint that the Fair Price Shop (number withheld) owner was not giving them foodgrains.
Kapade immediately got the FPS owner concerned on a phone call and asked him why he was not giving foodgrains to the differently-abled couple? To this the FPS owner assured Kapade that he will definitely resolve their issue.
“My vision is to tighten the slack food distribution apparatus and bridge certain gaps which have been brought to my notice. For the purpose, I have asked my staff to clear all the pending works such as addition of new names or deletion of entries etc on a priority basis. Besides, if everything goes per my plans, every month the foodgrains will be distributed to the beneficiaries at the most by the 7th of that month,” Kapade said.
In Malegaon, there are more than 150 Fair Price Shops distributing foodgrains under the Public Distribution System, an iconic project of the Government of India that has undergone a tectonic change after the National Food Security Act was enacted in the year 2013. The Act has brought about an unprecedented transformation in the entire Food Supply Chain. However, there are still some roadblocks that need to be removed to take all the benefits to more number of people.
Kapade started his career in the Food and Civil Supplies Department in the year 2011. Since then he has completed thirteen long years in the service. Before coming to Malegaon, he was in Darwh in Yevatmal district. There he was working as Supply Inspection Officer. In Arni Taluka, he was a Supply Inspector. His predecessor Deepak Dhiware was an officer of the Revenue Department.
