E-POS helps UP save 2.50L MT PDS grain
LUCKNOW: The installation of Aadhar-linked electronic point of sale (e-POS) machines at the public distribution system (PDS) shops in urban and rural areas of Uttar Pradesh has resulted in significant savings of the food grains apparently due to plugging in the pilferages.
It is revealed that as much as around 2.50 lakh MT of food grain — wheat and rice — was saved after distribution to all the eligible ration card holders just in five months between April and August this year.
Around 10% of the households still do not have their Aadhar cards in the state and the highly subsidized monthly ration is distributed to them manually and not through the e-POS.
“Now all the PDS shops in the state, either in cities or villages, have Aadhar-authenticated e-PoS devices to distribute the monthly ration to the beneficiaries and its impact is very encouraging in curbing leakages,” principal secretary, food and civil supply, Nivedita Shukla Verma claimed.
Explaining in details, secretary
10% OF HOUSEHOLDS STILL DO NOT HAVE THEIR AADHAR CARDS IN THE STATE AND THE HIGHLY SUBSIDIZED MONTHLY RATION IS DISTRIBUTED TO THEM MANUALLY AND NOT THROUGH THE E-POS.
to chief minister, Alok Kumar said, “Between April and August this year, a total 3873010.280 MT of food grain was allocated to ration dealers of which 3625621.284 MT was actually distributed to beneficiaries. Thus 247388.996 MT remained undistributed which is a huge saving.”
He said around 1.62 lakh MT of food grain was distributed manually too during the same period to those who still did not have Aadhaar cards.
Kumar had been commissioner, food and civil supply, for around two years before he moved to the CM office as secretary early this month. He said the food grain that was now being saved after distribution to all the eligible households was earlier pilfered in different ways.
In UP, there are over 3.54 crore ration cards and more than 14 crore beneficiaries and around 7-8 lakh MT of food grain comprising wheat and rice is distributed to eligible households for a subsidized rate of Rs 3 per kg and Rs 2 per kg respectively through a network of around 80,000 fair price shops under the National Food Civil Supply Act (NFSA), 2013.
While the priority households get 5 kg of food grain per unit/ member per month, the Antoday families (the poorest of the poor) get an assured 35 kg of food every month regardless of the size of the family.
Under the e-POS, the beginning of which was made from the urban areas of Lucknow in December 2016, consumer data is linked to their Aadhaar cards and ration card holders have to visit the PDS shop physically to register their biometric on the machine for prior authentication before their can buy the monthly ration.
“Prior to e-POS, the ration was distributed manually with little check on bogus beneficiaries procuring the subsidized food grain. The each month’s closing balance too was not strictly accounted for,” said sources.
According to Nivedita Shukla Verma, the problem of pilferage has been taken care of to a large extent by e-POS but the possibility of dealers resorting to short weight of the ration is still there.
“Now, we are planning making it mandatory for all the PDS shops to have electronic weighing machines to deal with the problem of possible short weight,” she said.