From July, people can get ration from any PDS depot in Haryana

Come July 1, consumers will be able to get ration from any Public Distribution System (PDS) depot in any part of Haryana, the state government said here today.

This would be made possible by the Fair Price System (FPS) automation, which has already been successfully launched in six districts, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Hisar, Bhiwani and Panchkula from May 1.

The consumers in these districts can draw their ration from any depot, Haryana's Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Karan Dev Kamboj said. He presided over a meeting of FPS automation with senior officers of the department today.
 

FPS automation has been initiated to bring transparency in the PDS and prevent corruption at ration depots, he said.

"Under this system, all ration cards would be linked with Aadhaar and the consumers would be able to get his ration from any depot in any part of the state.

"Not only this, the consumers would also get SMS alerts in Hindi on their registered mobile numbers. They would be able to get information related to transportation of grains and their arrival at depots through SMS while sitting at home," he said.

Kamboj said since the PDS system was connected to people living below the poverty line, the state government was making serious efforts to provide the poor the benefit of the scheme.

The pilot project of this system was initiated in Ambala in April which yielded good results. Later, it was implemented in five districts from May, he said.

In order to prevent corruption, the state government has made the entire system online due to which, 1.9 lakh fake beneficiaries were found in the pension department and four lakh fake admissions were detected in the education department, he said.

"Not only this, four lakh were found taking advantage of both gas and kerosene subsidy. The detection of pilferage has helped the state save crores of rupees. Similarly, now as PDS system would be made online and all poor would be provided with the benefit of ration by linking their ration cards with Aadhaar card," he said.

Kamboj said the FPS automation system was being implemented in the state on the pattern of 'Meri Marzi' scheme of Chhattisgarh, where a team was sent from Haryana to evaluate the scheme.

The state government is also implementing silos system for storage of grains under which, not even a single grain would be damaged, he said.

It has also been decided to store 9.5 metric tonnes in the silos out of which, 3 lakh metric tonnes would be stored by the Food Corporation and the remaining would be stored in godowns of other agencies, Kamboj added.