CM Jagan Mohan Reddy flags off vehicles for public distribution system door delivery
VIJAYAWADA: Marking a new chapter in the history of the Public Distribution System in the state, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday flagged off 2,500 PDS vehicles for door delivery of rice and other essentials to the beneficiaries in Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts. The programme will be implemented in a full-fledged manner across the State from February 1.
The Chief Minister flagged off the PDS vehicles, which are named Mobile Dispensing Units (MDUs) of the civil supplies department. He also inspected the MDUs and interacted with MDU operators and handed over keys to them.
These vehicles are part of 9,260 MDUs procured at a cost of Rs 539 crore. Further, the government will be spending Rs 830 crore per year to enable door-delivery of essentials across the State. Door delivery of ration is one of the promises made by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during his 3,648 km padayatra before the 2019 elections during which he witnessed elderly and differently-abled people waiting in long queues to get the ration supplies, which were of poor quality.
After coming to power, the Chief Minister has taken the initiative to provide quality rice at the doorstep of the ration card holders. Now, quality sortex rice is being given to the card holders, with zero per cent stones and less than one per cent dyed or damaged grains.
To ensure transparency, the biometric system will be followed and ration will be supplied in reusable bags, which were released by the Chief Minister on Thursday. Every bag of rice will be sealed and tagged with unique code and only opened in the presence of the beneficiaries.
Every MDU is equipped with GPS, for keeping track of their movements and the beneficiaries will be informed of the time when the vehicles will arrive at their doorstep. They can also keep track of the MDUs using a mobile application.
The MDUs were provided by the government at 60 per cent subsidy to eligible beneficiaries through various corporations. The value of each vehicle is Rs 5.81 lakh, out of which Rs 3,48,600 was provided as subsidy from various Corporations. In all, 700 vehicles are from ST Corporation, 2,300 from SC Corporation and 3,800 from BC Corporation.