With a view to prevent diversion of PDS rice and other essential commodities and to plug loopholes in the existing system of PDS by utilising latest technology, a Command and Control Centre was today inaugurated at the Telangana Civil Supplies Department here.
Finance Minister Etala Rajender, opened the Command and Control Centre, where Video Walls with 210 inches width, 72 inches length has been installed, which is one of the biggest Video wall in the state.
Sitting at the Command and Control Centre one can watch movement of vehicles utilised for transportation of PDS rice till the stocks reaches the ration shops, Telangana Commissioner of Civil Supplies C V Anand said adding the facility of seeing the operations on video wall will also be extended to all the Joint Collectors offices in the near future.
Installation of CCTV Cameras, GPS devices in all the Stage - I/II transport vehicles, biometric system at all FP Shops and all other operations are under the surveillance of Command Control System, he said.
"The Centre has been designed to watch/monitor movement of vehicles in Stage - I (stocks moved from buffer godowns to MLS points) and Stage-II (transportation of PDS rice from MLS points till the commodities reach the Fair Price Shops), he explained.
He said Command and Control Centre will enable the Department to monitor the movement of 1383 vehicles including 46 Kerosene Tankers (installed with GPS system) involved in transportation of essential commodities from the Stage-I Godowns finally to the Fair Price Shops.
The Centre will also enable watching live the CCTVs put in the Mandal Level Stock (MLS) godowns to watch "illegal" activities, if any.
To plug leakages of essential commodities earmarked for PDS and eliminate menance of middlemen, as a pilot project, 64 CCTVs have been set up in the 8 MLS godowns of Hyderabad District and after government approval CCTVs would also be installed in all the MLS godowns in the state, Anand added.
The Civil Supplies Department would soon introduce ePOS and biometric AePS in 17,500 fair price shops across Telangana, Anand said.
Chief Secretary S P Singh said "application of technology will rule out diversion of rice and other essential commodities and result in savings besides quality of service will improve.
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