in person
Raj Kumar
Secretary Food & Civil Supplies Department, Govt of Gujarat
How has the
target beneficiary group reacted to Smart PDS?
W
hat are the aims and objectives of the Public Distribution System (PDS)?
PDS was established with an objective of ensuring food security of the common people in the country. This is to be achieved through the provision of subsidised foodgrain and other essential commodities, sold through Fair Price Shops (FPS). Under the PDS, the Central Government procures grain from farmers and then allocates it to states, which in turn, are responsible for identification of beneficiaries and delivery through the Fair Price Shops. The country moved from a universal PDS to a targeted PDS (TPDS) in 1997 with an objective of maximising benefits for the most needy, categorised as Below Poverty Line (BPL) households. The Above Poverty Line (APL) households also receive certain benefits, subject to conditions.
Please discuss the major problems faced by PDS.
Gujarat Food and Civil Supplies Secretary Raj Kumar talks to Anand Agarwal and Sunil Kumar about the
Why did Gujarat decide to use ICT for reforming PDS?
important features and challenges in the state’s
Under the proposed National Food Security Bill, a legal entitlement to food would be created. This will make it imperative for governments to be able to track every single transaction in order to be able to confidently say that a particular beneficiary has been covered. Such transaction-wise monitoring is possible only with use of ICT-based solutions as manual systems cannot provide the degree of reliability and concurrency needed for this purpose.
much-applauded reform of the Public Distribution System (PDS), which has now been transformed into a biometrics-based Smart PDS
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Inclusion and exclusion errors, leakages and diversion of foodgrain and other commodities meant for PDS beneficiaries to open markets are the major problems that the PDS is facing today. As per a 2005 report of the Planning Commission, 58 percent of the foodgrain meant for PDS is diverted to the market. This is not only a huge loss to the exchequer, it also has extremely high social costs as this means a large proportion of people are not having access to required nutrition.
egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2011