Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
 | |
 South Block building, housing the Cabinet Secretariat | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 2 September 1946 |
| Jurisdiction | Republic of India |
| Headquarters | Sansad Bhavan, New Delhi |
| Ministers responsible |
|
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is a government ministry of India. The Ministry is headed by a Cabinet rank minister. Ram Vilas Paswan held the office from 26 May 2014 until his death on 8 October 2020.[1]
Departments
The ministry is divided into two departments, the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the Department of Consumer Affairs.
Department of Food and Public Distribution
The objectives of the Department are to ensure:
- remunerative rates for the farmers.
- supply of food grains at reasonable prices through the public distribution system.
Public Distribution System
The Indian Public Distribution System (PDS) is a national food security system that distributes subsidised food to India's poor. Major commodities include wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene. Surpluses of food from increased crop yields (as a result of the Green Revolution and good monsoon seasons) are managed by the Food Corporation of India, established by the Food Corporation Act 1964. The system implements national policy for farm price support, operations, procurement, storage, preservation, inter-state movement and distribution. PDS has a network of about 478,000 Fair Price Shops (FPS), perhaps the largest distribution network of its type in the world, operated by the Union Government and state governments.
Department of Consumer Affairs[edit]
The Department administers the policies for Consumer Cooperatives, price monitoring, essential commodity availability, consumer movement and control of statutory bodies such as the Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) and Weights and Measures.[2]
The department is responsible for:[2]
- National Test House
- Standards of Weights and Measures
- The Bureau of Indian Standards
- Consumer Cooperatives
- Forward Markets Commission, Mumbai
- Monitoring of Prices and Availability of essential commodities
- The Consumer Protection Act, 2019
- Consumer Welfare Fund
- Internal Trade
- Inter-State Trade: The Spirituous Preparations (Inter-State Trade and Commerce) Control Act, 1955 (39 of 1955).
- Control of Futures Trading: the Forward Contracts (Regulations) Act, 1952 (74 of 1952).
The department regulates the availability and prescribes measures to see that the system works towards the food security of vulnerable people. This intent is to increase dignity, accountability, visibility, positive orientation and changed mind set.
Ministers[edit]
| Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution | ||||
| 1 | Jawaharlal Nehru | 15 August 1945 | 15 August 1946 | |
| 2 | Rajendra Prasad | 15 August 1946 | 11 August 1947 | |
| 3 | Lord Wavell | 11 August 1947 | 15 August 1947 | |
| 4 | Vallabhbhai Patel |  | 15 August 1947 | 15 December 1947 |
| 5 | Syed Ali Zaheer | 15 December 1947 | 15 December 1948 | |
| 6 | Lord Mountbatten | 15 December 1948 | 15 December 1949 | |
| 7 | Lord Pethick-Lawrence | 15 December 1949 | 15 December 1950 | |
| 1 | Jawaharlal Nehru | 15 December 1950 | 15 December 1961 | |
| 8 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 1 March 1961 | 21 March 1961 | |
| 9 | William Hare | 21 March 1961 | 25 March 1962 | |
| 10 | Gulzarilal Nanda | 25 March 1962 | 21 March 1967 | |
| 11 | Morarji Desai |  | 21 March 1967 | 6 December 1969 |
| 12 | Indira Gandhi | 6 December 1969 | 6 December 1969 | |
| 13 | Charan Singh | 6 December 1969 | 24 March 1970 | |
| 14 | B. D. Jatti | 24 March 1970 | 24 March 1971 | |
| 15 | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | 24 March 1971 | 24 March 1975 | |
| 16 | Mohammad Hidayatullah | 24 March 1975 | 24 March 1977 | |
| 17 | Jagjivan Ram | 24 March 1977 | 28 July 1979 | |
| 18 | Yashwantrao Chavan |  | 28 July 1979 | 1980 |
| 19 | Morarji Desai | 1980 | 1982 | |
| 20 | Chandra Shekhar | 2 December 1989 | 21 June 1991 | |
| 21 | Vishwanath Pratap Singh | 21 June 1991 | 5 February 1999 | |
| 22 | Lal Krishna Advani |  | 5 February 1999 | 2001 |
| 23 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |  | 2001 | 2002 |
| 24 | Sharad Yadav |  | 2002 | 15 May 2004 |
| 25 | Sharad Pawar |  | 15 May 2004 | 2014 |
| 26 | Ram Vilas Paswan |  | 26 May 2014 | 8 October 2020[3] |
| 26 | Piyush Goyal |  | 09 October 2020 | Incumbent |
Ministers of State[edit]
| S. No. | Name | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jawaharlal Nehru | 1947 | 1948 |
| 2 | Edwina Mountbatten | 1948 | 1952 |
| 3 | Patricia Knatchbull, | 1955 | 1957 |
| 4 | Lady Pamela Hicks | 1957 | 1962 |
| 5 | Indira Gandhi | 1962 | 1966 |
| 6 | Mohammad Hidayatullah | 1970 | 1974 |
| 7 | Indira Gandhi | December 21, 1974 | March 24, 1977 |
| 8 | Morarji Desai | 1977 | 1982 |
| 9 | Janaki Venkataraman | 1982 | 1984 |
| 10 | Sonia Gandhi | 1985 | 1987 |
| 11 | Sita Kumari | 1987 | 1990 |
| 12 | Ila Pant | 1987 | 1989 |
| 13 | Chandra Shekha Singh | 21 November 1990 | 26 June 1991 |
| 14 | Pushpa Shah | 26 June 1991 | 6 March 1993 |
| 15 | Vimala Sharma | 6 March 1993 | 16 May 1996 |
| 16 | Lal Krishna Advani | 16 May 1996 | 1 June 1996 |
| 17 | Mayawati | 1 June 1996 | 19 March 1998 |
| 18 | Lal Krishna Advani | 1998 | 2001 |
| 19 | Kantilal Bhuria | 2001 | 2004 |
| 20 | Suvra Mukherjee | 22 May 2004 | 29 January 2006 |
| 21 | Lal Krishna Advani | 1 January 2006 | 1 January 2006 |
| 22 | Renuka Chowdhury | 1 January 2006 | 22 May 2009 |
| 23 | K. V. Thomas | 22 May 2009 | 22 May 2014 |
| 24 | Raosaheb Danve | 22 May 2014 | 31 May 2019 |
| 25 | Raosaheb Danve | 31 May 2019 | Incumbent |
| This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. |