The Chhattisgarh Government has allocated 1.99 lakh quintals of rice under the Public Distribution System (PDS) to ration card holders of seven districts of Bastar division for the month of September this year.The State Government has allocated fair price shops to 157 new Gram Panchayats out of 1239 Gram Panchayats constituted in Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
Till June month, ration shops were allocated to 157 new panchayats, which includes 104 shops in Rajnandgaon district, 47 shops in Surguja district, two shops in North Bastar (Kanker), two shops in Mungeli district, and one each in Raipur and Koriya district.
In a bid to strengthen the Public Distribution System (PDS), as many as 2653 fair price shops have been opened in the State during the past 11 years including 66 new shops in 2014-15. With this the total fair price shops in the PDS system in the State has gone up to 11,111.
Officials claim that Chhattisgarh is a model State in Public Distribution System (PDS), which is transparent and ration is provided on schedule.
Officials of Food, Civil Supply and Consumer Protection Department said that the State government had implemented the Public Distribution System (Control) Order on December 23, 2004 to monitor the allotments to the fair price shops and for timely lifting and distribution of ration.
In order to provide ration to the beneficiaries every month, there are 11111 fair price shops active in the State. This includes 9795 shops in rural areas and 1316 shops in urban areas. The gram panchayats are operating 4083 shops even as cooperative societies are also operating 4361 shops. Besides this 2458 shops are being run by the women Self Help Groups (SHG), 152 shops by Forest Protection Societies and 56 shops are being run by the urban bodies.
There are 771 shops in Raigarh, 763 in Rajnandgaon, 756 shops in Bilaspur, 622 in Janjgir-Champa, 578 in Durg, 565 in Raipur, 522 in Mahasamund, 515 shops in Baloda Bazar-Bhatapara, 424 in Jashpur, 415 in Korba, 414 in Balod and 403 shops each in Kanker and Surajpur.Similarly 394 fair price shops are being run in Surguja, 388 in Kabirdham, 375 in Bastar, 356 in Bemetara, 345 in Balrampur-Ramanujganj, 314 shops each in Gariaband and Mungeli districts, 299 in Koriya, 278 in Kondagaon, 171 in Bijapur, 142 in Sukma, 136 in Dantewada and 76 fair price shops are being run in Narayanpur district.
