Soon, the consumers will not have to stand in long queues to fetch food grains in front of government ration depots as Haryana Government has prepared a plan to install ‘Grain ATMs’ across the state.
Under this, the country’s first ‘Grain ATM’ has been set up as a pilot project in Gurugram district.
Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, who also holds the portfolio of Food and Civil Supplies Department said that with the installation of ‘Grain ATMs’, all the complaints regarding the time and right measurement of ration quantity will be redressed.
He said that the purpose of installing this machine is to ensure that the right quantity should reach the right beneficiary. This would not only benefit the consumers but would also end the hassle regarding shortage of food grains at government depots and would bring more transparency in the public food distribution system than before, he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister further said that these machines would not only prove helpful in distributing food grains to the government depot operators but would also save the time of the depot operators.
After the successful completion of this pilot project at Farrukhnagar in Gurugram district, there is a plan to install these food supply machines at government depots across the state, he added.
HOW WILL THE GRAIN ATM WORK?
It is an automatic machine which works like a bank ATM. This machine will be installed under the ‘World Food Programme’ of ‘United Nation’, and is called Automated, Multi Commodity, Grain Dispensing Machine. Ankit Sood, an officer associated with this programme, informed that the error in the measurement of grain is negligible and this machine can dispense up to 70 kg of grains within 5 to 7 minutes at a time.
This automatic machine is equipped with a biometric system with a touch screen, where the beneficiary will have to enter the aadhar card or ration card unique number. On biometric authentication, the food grains prescribed by the government to the beneficiaries will be automatically filled in the bags installed under the machine.
Three types of grains including wheat, rice and millet can be distributed through this machine. At present, distribution of wheat has been started from the Grain ATM machine installed in Farrukhnagar in Gurugram.