Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ramvilas Paswan on Thursday said that the Government has been focusing on digitisation of all works under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and making online linkage of ration cards to plug the loopholes in the process of subsidised food distribution across the country. He said that 23.82 crore ration cards have been digitised till date and in 12 States 100 per cent work of Aadhar linkage has been completed.
Elaborating on the details of work done in last two years by his Ministry, Paswan said that due to computerisation and streamlining of supply chain online allocation of food in 23 States is made possible. “We have saved Rs10,000 crore through online linkage of ration cards. Over 3.75 crore cards were found to be erroneous during the digitisation process and they were removed from the list,” said the Union Minister in a press conference at the Indian Institute of legal Meteorology (IIlM), Ranchi.
Paswan, on Thursday, became the first Union Minister to visit the IIlM, Ranchi – an institute of international repute that provides specialized training in legal metrology not only in the country but also in South and South-East Asia. He inaugurated a 150 KW solar power facility and also announced to build a guest house in the institute.
Talking about Direct Benefit Transfer in PDS system in the country, the minister said that it has been successful in two Union Territories Pondicherry and Chandigarh on trial basis before launching it in other States. He announced that Ranchi will also be a model city for DBT in PDS once the digitisation work is completed here. State Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Roy affirmed that the work of digitization would be complete in another 15 days.
Further talking about the work of the department, Paswan said that the Food Security Act has been implemented in 33 States and rest of the States/UTs will soon come under the Act. “Most of the godowns and depots have been connected online and CCTV cameras have also been installed there. However, the state governments have a huge responsibility to ensure that the food is distributed to the beneficiaries without pilferage,” he said.
Talking about consumer affairs, the Union Minister said that the BIS has been strengthened and the consumer courts, forums have been given more teeth to deal with cases of consumer frauds. He informed that e-warranty scheme has been launched to protect consumers’ interests and an authority has also been set up to take appropriate action in cases related to goods and services sector.
Talking about prices of pulses, Paswan accepted that it was a challenge to control the prices of pulses. “However, the Government has taken a number of measures to make pulses available to consumers at affordable rates. We have asked States that in no case the price of Arhar Dal should go above Rs120 per kg,” he added.
Talking about Jharkhand on the occasion, Roy said that over 2.3 crore ration cards have been made in the State and the digitisation will be completed within 15 days. “We are also launching Ration Card Management System soon. All godowns will have electronic devices and vigilance committees have also been made to curb malpractices. After the implementation of Food Security Act here now 51 lakh families of 3.29 crore people of the state are covered under the Central schemes of the Ministry,” said Roy.