E-POS INITIATIVE IN PDS SAVED `578CR FOR TS

Outgoing civil supplies commissioner C.V. Anand’s E-PoS (Electronic Point of Sale) initiative in public distribution system (PDS) could save `578 crore in 23 months for the state government. The E-PoS project was successfully implemented in 17,000 PDS shops across the state during his tenure.

Mr Anand, who created a record of becoming the first IPS officer in the state to head the civil supplies department in August 2016, is set to join Central services soon as Insp-ector-General of CISF.

A saving of 12 to 15 per cent of rice stocks was witnessed every month which resulted in saving 2 lakh metric tonnes of rice for the government by effectively preventing diversion of unclaimed PDS rice from beneficiaries.

E-PoS helped in the distribution of ration commodities to the real beneficiaries and the return of the surplus to the government with correct weight measures.

This system is successful in putting barriers on black marketing of commodities and irregularities of ration dealers. “The job of civil supplies commissioner was most challenging. It involves huge amount of public money. Now I can leave the mantle with utmost job satisfaction as we could save huge amount of public money within a short span by bringing reforms in PDS with the support of advanced technological initiatives. My task has been fulfilled,” Mr Anand said.

In March 2016, the project was started on a pilot basis in 1,545 ration shops under GHMC limits.

Initially this system was effective by recognising fingerprints of the beneficiaries for dis-