Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, has said that Government has taken number of initiatives for the protection of the interests of consumers. <br/><br/>Addressing the Regional Editors' Conference in Chandigarh today he said that very soon services and products in the area of health, food etc. will have to follow mandatory quality standards and precious metals like Gold and silver shall have to wear hallmarking. <br/><br/>Minister informed that New Bureau of Indian Standards Act has been enacted for this purpose and rules are being framed.<br/><br/>Referring to the efforts being made by Government to check prices of essential commodities, especially pulses, Sh. Ram Vilas Paswan said that incentives given to farmers will increase the availability of the pulses. <br/><br/>He said that besides increasing MSP for the pulses, the Government agencies are making direct procurement of pulses from the farmers at market price to maintain a buffer stock of 20 lakh tonnes. The states are being provided pulses at subsidised rates from this stock.<br/><br/>Highlighting reforms initiated in Public Distribution System, Sh. Ram Vilas Paswan said that so far 100 percent digitization of ration cards have been completed and about 70 percent cards have been linked with Aadhar Cards to make the system more transparent and leak proof. <br/><br/>The Union Minister said that at present more than 81 crore people are getting subsidized food grains under National Food Security Act and very soon beneficiaries from across the nation except Tamil Nadu will get food grains as Kerala has also agreed to implement the Act next month.