Measures for improving the Targeted Public Distribution System
The Government has taken various measures for modernising and improving the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) including implementation of a Plan Scheme on End-to-end computerisation of TPDS operations across the country under the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) at a total cost of Rs. 884.07 crore, out of which Government of Indias share is Rs. 489.37 crore and States/UTs share is Rs. 394.70 crore. The cost sharing between centre and States would be on 90:10 basis for North-Eastern States, whereas for other States/UTs, cost will be shared on 50:50 basis. National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the technical partner of the scheme. Financial assistance of Rs. 287.08 crore has already been released to 28 States/UTs, NIC etc till 30.11.2015. This information was given by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. The Minister said that the Component-I of the Plan Scheme provides for undertaking various Information Communications Technology (ICT) based activities, such as, digitization of ration cards/beneficiary and other databases, computerisation of supply-chain management, setting up of transparency portal and grievance redressal mechanism. Under this scheme, as per reports received, as on 31.10.2015, ration card data digitization has been done in 29 States/UTs, ration card data is available on Web Portal in 27 States/UTs, Online allocation is being done in 16 States/UTs, supply-chain management in 8 States/UTs, Transparency Portal set up in 27 States/UTs, online Grievance Redressal Mechanism in 26 and toll free helpline number has been set up in 32 States/UTs. As part of beneficiary data digitization, States/UTs have been requested to seed the Aadhaar numbers wherever available so as to weed out the ineligible/ bogus / duplicate beneficiaries. As part of FPS automation at FPS, use of Aadhaar will ensure proper identification of beneficiaries and distribution of foodgrains only to the intended beneficiaries thereby reducing leakages/diversions, etc. As regards financial assistance, Government has approved FPS dealers margins under NFSA which also includes reimbursement of Rs. 17/qtl. for their expenditure towards purchase and operations of the PoS/Mobile Tablet device at the FPS for automation. So far, more than 56,000 FPSs are automated across the country and this count is likely to be increased to 75,000 FPSs by March, 2016.
