HYDERABAD: Telangana has recorded the lowest leakage percentage of grains of 0.3 per cent from the Public Distribution System (PDS), while Gujarat stood in the third place in the country with 43 per cent, revealed a study titled ‘Rationalising Public Distribution System In India’ conducted by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) released recently.
North-Eastern states Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland followed by Gujarat are the top three in terms of PDS leakage of grains. On the other hand, in Uttar Pradesh, PDS leakage stood at 33 per cent, with the state topping the list in terms of the absolute quantity of grains leaked.
Other states including Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra experienced high rates of siphoning, which often involves grains being diverted back to the open market, the report read.
The research body conducted a comprehensive study based on reports that the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) of 2022-23 showed that almost 28 percent of the grains, which amounts to a financial loss of about Rs 69,108 crore (equivalent to roughly 20 million metric tons (MMT) of rice and wheat) supplied by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and respective state governments never reach the intended beneficiaries.
As of November 2024, there are 813.5 million beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution). In Telangana, as many as 281.71 lakh beneficiaries are served through 89.97 lakh Food Security Cards using a network of 17,235 Fair Price Shops (FPSs).
The PDS ensures a monthly scale of 6 kg of rice per head to all the 281.71 lakh beneficiaries. Under other welfare schemes such as the mid-day meal programme, welfare institutions, hostels, and ICDS, ‘sannabiyyam’ (fortified rice) is being provided to 49 lakh students/inmates/beneficiaries across the state.
Meanwhile, the Telangana government is planning to distribute a superfine variety of foodgrains to bring down even the thin margin of leakage percentage.
This is on account of Telangana government initiating a process to implement a SMART PDS system to further prevent food grain leakage.