The Economic Survey Report 2016-17 tabled by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely in Parliament on Tuesday termed improvement in public distribution system (PDS) in Chhattisgarh as an ‘important exception.’
It stated,“The deepest puzzle here is the following: while competitive federalism has been a powerful agent of change in relation to attracting investment and talent, it has been less in evidence in relation to essential service delivery".
There have, of course, been important exceptions, such as the improvement of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in Chhattisgarh, the incentivization of agriculture in Madhya Pradesh, reforms in the power sector in Gujarat which improved delivery and cost recovery, the efficiency of social programs in Tamil Nadu, and the recent use of technology to help make Haryana kerosene-free, the report stated.
Meanwhile, as per official information from Chhattisgarh government, the State had been using information Technology as a perfect tool to revolutionize its model PDS in its attempt to ensure the delivery of highly subsidized food items to ration shops across the state to feed its millions of poor families.
``IT has completely reformed the public distribution system (PDS) in Chhattisgarh, so much that Chhattisgarh's PDS has been recognized as the best PDS model in the country,’’ a government statement had claimed earlier.
Ministers and officials from 20 states of the country have observed the PDS model of Chhattisgarh and it has been awarded with five national awards.
Notably, Chhattisgarh government has done computerization of all fair price shops in state to bring transparency and ensure accountability in public distribution system. In addition to this, ration card are also being linked with the aadhaar card numbers to ensure proper identification of eligible beneficiaries.
linkage of Aadhaar cards to ration cards has provided the beneficiaries with the facility to avail ration supply from any of the computerized fair price shops of their area. With this system, beneficiaries will not have to bring their ration cards to ration shop, as they can easily receive their share of ration using their Aadhaar card number. Through aadhaar card number, beneficiaries will also be able to avail Central government’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme.
Government claimed that State government's Food Civil Supply and Consumer Protection department has computerized 12021 shops out of 12349 ration shops of state with android-based tablet. More than 92 per cent ration cards have been linked with aadhaar card numbers. State Government allots the stock of rice, sugar, salt and grams to all 27 districts of state by 10th of every month, under PDS, welfare schemes and Mukhyamantri Khadyann Yojana. Presently nearly 58 lakh families in state are being provided monthly supply of rice at nominal rate of ` 1.
For computerization of PDS, all the District Food Offices have been linked with headquarters through internet. All 125 fair price shops of Chhattisgarh Civil Supply Corporation have been equipped with internet connectivity.
To enhance transparency and to ensure public participation in PDS, Chhattisgarh Government's Food Civil Supply and Consumer Protection Department has made all the necessary arrangements using information technology. Government has also set up a call centre with toll free numbers 1800-233-3663 and 1967. Any citizen can call on these numbers and get information about PDS and various other schemes of Food Department or register their complaints.
Notably, as many as 1.83 crore ration card holder members among families are now linked to Aadhaar under the Public Distribution System (PDS) , officials informed.
A total of 12,021 ration shops have also been computerized in Chhattisgarh and connected using Andorid based Tablets, officials informed.
The move had been taken to further strengthen the Public Distribution System (PDS) and make its functioning more transparent, officials informed.
Considerable progress has also been achieved in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan with 17,000 (99%), 11,965 (97%) and 24,649 (96%) automated Fair Price Shops (FPSs) respectively, the Central government has informed.
As a result, these States have been able to reduce ghost lifting, achieve better targeting of food subsidies by authentication of eligible beneficiaries, improvement in service delivery, weeding out bad FPSs, etc.
Notably, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan had requested States to expedite the reforms so as to bring transparency in the functioning of Public Distribution System (PDS), which is a key feature of National Food Security Act (NFSA).
Highlighting the significant role played by Central and State Governments in ensuring food security to more than 80 crore eligible beneficiaries under the NFSA, which is presently being implemented in 34 States/UTs, Paswan requested Kerala and Tamil Nadu also to implement the Act as early as possible.
The Minister was addressing the inaugural session of the National Conference on Reforms in PDS and Computerization in New Delhi recently.
He appreciated the significant efforts made by the various State/UT Governments in achieving 100% digitization of ration cards and automating 1.5 lakh Fair Price Shops across the country.
Officers from the State Governments of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra shared the Best Practices in Aadhaar Seeding, FPS automation and Supply Chain Management for the benefit of others States/UTs.
The Minister also requested the concerned States/UTs, lagging behind in PDS Computerization in general, and in Aadhaar seeding and FPS automation in particular.
Paswan said due to Aadhaar seeding a total of 2.33 crore ghost/fraudulent/duplicate ration cards have been deleted across 27 States and UTs which has led to estimated ‘Rightful Targeting of Food Subsidies’ of Rs. 14,000 crore.
Addressing the conference Union Minister of State of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution C.R. Chaudhary emphasized the need to further improve the efficiency and transparency of all operations related to food security i.e. production, procurement, storage, logistics, distribution and nutrition among others.
In order to ensure the timely delivery of quality food-grains and protect consumer rights, he requested the concerned stakeholders to modernize procurement operations, construct scientific storage facilities, implement NFSA and complete the end to end computerization of TPDS operations within the desired time frames.With a view to ensuring that only eligible beneficiaries get ration supply under Public Distribution System (PDS) and for their error-free identification, ration cards have been linked with Aadhaar numbers, officials informed.