The State Government has decided to instal Global Positioning System (GPS) in each vehicle carrying public distribution system (PDS) commodities in order to check the rampant theft of these items.
Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department Principal Secretary Pradipta Mohapatra said, “The vehicles used by the level-2 contractors for transporting PDS items from the depot to the retailer points will have mandatory GPS tracking system so that we will be able to track their movement.”
Moreover, Point of Sale (POS) machines would be installed in all PDS counters across the State by the end of June.
“All outlets in headquarter blocks will have POS machines by March end and in whole of the state by the end of June as per earlier decided programme,” said Mohapatra.
Commenting on the status of paddy procurement in the State Mohapatra said, “Farmers have been paid Rs 2,600 crore through online. We expect to procure 40 lakh tonne paddy in the Kharif season and around 21 lakh tonnes have been already procured. About 50 percent paddy has been procured.”
“This year we have introduced a new modality, a miller who delivers us with more rice will be entitled to get more paddy as per his/her milling capacity. From that point of view rice delivery which was 12 per cent last year, it has almost doubled to 25 percent this year,” informed Mohapatra.