WORK OUT WAY TO DELIVER RATION TO CARD HOLDERS: KEJRI

NEW DELHI: Soon you may get ration delivered at your doorstep if you are a beneficiary of Delhi government’s Public Distribution System (PDS) .

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday directed the concerned officials to work over doorstep delivery of ration to the beneficiaries in the city and submit a feasibility report in this connection.

The CM issued these directions in a review meeting of the PDS of ration to the beneficiaries. The meeting was attended by Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, food and supplies minister Imran Hussain and chief secretary MM Kutty along with other officials.

According to officials, Kejriwal in the meeting said when normal goods can be delivered by the companies at doorstep then why can’t this practice be adopted for ration distribution.

“Under this scheme, the beneficiary will be delivered his quota of ration at his address by a designated person for delivery. To ensure the ration is delivered to the right person, the vendor will be equipped with a PoS (point of sale) machine and a camera,” a Delhi government official said.

He said that Kejriwal also directed the officials to conduct an experiment over doorstep delivery of ration and submit a feasibility report in the next review meeting – the date of which is yet to be decided.

“This scheme will make the process of getting ration easy and the people will not have to go anywhere. It will also bring transparency in the Public Distribution System,” the official said.

Data available with the government say there are around 72 lakh PDS beneficiaries and 2260 ration shops in the city.

According to a government statement, the vending machine will be calibrated with the bio- metric machine which will recognise the beneficiary through his thumb impression, picture and Aadhar card and send the command to the vending machine to release the quantity of ration to be given to a particular beneficiary.