Finding dysfunctional biometric hand-held devices holding up services at several Public Distribution System (PDS) shops, Food and Public Distribution Minister Saryu Roy stringently ordered the devices to be repaired without delay and make alternate arrangements so as to avoid any inconvenience to the beneficiaries.
Roy visited several PDS shops, accompanied by Ranchi Mayor Asha lakra, several district officials and representatives of biometric devices dealer, to gauge the status of the devices meant to maintain accurate records of beneficiaries catered to by the shop.
During this inspection visit, the team arrived first at the PDS shop of Amarnath Jha in Ward 47 and then that of Ramjeevan in Ward 37. Biometric devices at both the shops he visited were out of order.
In his clarification, Jha stated that the hand-held biometric device was functional and has been used to register beneficiaries till Sunday. When asked for the reason behind the malfunction, Pradeep Kumar of Vision Tech, the firm which supplies the devices pegged it as fault in the server which is handled by National Informatics Centre.
“This visit was meant to ascertain whether the biometric devices at PDS shops are functioning satisfactorily or not and transparency is being maintained in the system. The findings were not very positive. The devices have gone out of order due to some technical faults. The dealers have been asked to get the required repairs done as soon as possible. Till then, the records of beneficiaries will should be kept manually so that they do not have to suffer when they come to the shop to collect their ration,” said the Food Minister.
He further added, “Instructions have been issued to provide an operating manual to the PDS shopkeepers so that they can operate the devices properly.”
This inspection visit came three days after complaints of faulty biometric devices hindering PDS services in the state capital were taken up strongly by ward councillors of the city during their meeting with Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar held on Friday last week.
As for the computerisation of processes regarding food and public distribution, Roy stated that the required corpus of funds have already been released by State Government to support this initiative.
Meanwhile, a Jan Sunwai camp was convened at the ward-14 office in Chutia on Monday. The grievance redressal camp registered a total of 75 complaints from residents of wards 11, 12, 13, 14 and 49. Most of the grievances were related to the issue of water supply and scarcity.