Jharkhand is moving towards total modernisation of the PDS system that would include portability facility, besides biometric verification of beneficiaries on the spot through UID and handheld devices.
The Government will provide flexibility for a PDS consumer to get his ration at any place, without being bound to a particular dealer.
Addressing mediapersons on Thursday, Chief Secretary RS Sharma said a massive modernisation process is on to make food security universal and pilferage-free. “The Food Security Bill is coming. We are disbursing subsidy of about Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 9,000 crore comes as Centre’s share). Thus, we have to ensure a better PDS system with greater reach,” he explained.
“The database has been digitised along with UID and biometrics. We are also thinking about portability for ration dealers,” the Chief Secretary added.
The Government will start a pilot project on August 15 in Ormanjhi, Kunti Sadar, Ramgarh Sadar and Gobindpur blocks, where controlled priced ration would be distributed based on UIDs.
Sharma said 26 lakh ration cards in the State have been digitised, leaving another 10 lakh in the process. However, merely 18 lakh ration cards have been verified so far. He explained that a printout of ration card would be as valid as the card itself, so non-issuance of cards was not so big a hurdle.
Sharma also stressed on digitisation of land records — likely to be completed by December — and added that mutation and other related jobs would be notified to go online as soon as work is completed in a particular circle.
The Chief Secretary spoke about power too, noting, “We have first right over power generated here. The issue is the distribution network, which has to be made viable. For that, we have to improve tariff collection. Two cities have been brought under franchise along with some rural areas. We are getting good results and looking to replicate this.”
Sharma also felt there was a lot more scope in revenue collections — an increase of 20 per cent through certain measures. “We are replicating the best practices adopted by other States. We are also working to set up combined check-post of commercial tax, mine and excise to stop corruption.”
The CS said road construction, infrastructure development, tourism and transportation would be run on PPP mode to expedite development. Smaller buildings of anganwadi centres, schools or panchayats would be constructed with prefabricated materials so construction time and cost are decreased. “A task force
under leadership of the PWD Secretary will prepare a roadmap for this,” Sharma added.