BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to launch Point of Sale (POS) machines in all fair price shops across the State from March in order to ensure transparency in the sale of public delivery system (PDS) goods.
In the first phase, it is proposed to take up about 9,000 fair price shops (FPS) each having 300 ration cards or more attached to them for automation in the State. These 9,000 FPS transact about 90 percent of the total food grains distributed to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
While there are about 15,000 PDS outlets in the State, the remaining 6,000 FPS will be automated by September. This is part of fair price automation policy of the Centre.
This was informed to Chief Secretary AP Padhi during a review on the performance of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department, particularly the end-to-end computerisation (EtEC) of the PDS.
Sources in the department said the system will be implemented in two phases, first in urban and then in rural areas.
Meanwhile, training on the automation programme is being imparted to PDS dealers, field officials of the department and district officials.
This system will help the department keep a tab on people involved in the supply chain and PDS dealers, a senior official said.
Fingerprint impression of beneficiaries will be taken to authenticate the ration card holders during delivery of PDS rice.
The Chief Secretary was told that the department is all set to implement the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme in the distribution of kerosene in urban areas from March. The DBT scheme will be rolled out to rural areas in June.
About 86 lakh households, with a population of 3.23 crore, are covered under food security net. Nearly 68 lakh families have opened bank accounts and 85 per cent of them have Aadhar seeding with banks.
On paddy procurement, the meeting was informed that 20.98 lakh quintals of paddy have been procured under the decentralised paddy procurement system. The State Government has made an online payment to the tune of Rs 2,700 crores to farmers.
As some Jan Dhan accounts have remained dormant due to non-operation for a long time and the account holders are facing difficulties in receiving their payment, the Government requested the regional office of the RBI to direct banks to take necessary steps to remove the hurdles.