State takes steps to weed out corruption in PDS

SHILLONG: With recurring complaints about the public distribution system, the Food and Civil Supplies department has decided to take steps to correct the anomalies.
“We have captured all complaints whether appearing in newspapers or complaints made in portal or 1967 toll free number. All deputy commissioners were given a month’s time to probe the allegations and take action”, said a senior official of the department.
The official added that all DCs have been asked to take exemplary action against PDS wholesale dealers and Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealers engaged in corruption.
The official said Electronic Point of Sale (E-PoS) devices will be installed in the state to ensure transparency in the distribution of PDS items.
Some states are following the system which was introduced since 2018.
Ration will be supplied to the beneficiaries through the system and it bars people from buying ration using the cards belonging to others.
The system will identify the card holders and the beneficiaries will get the allotted quantity of ration.
The finger print based system will also ensure detection of bogus beneficiaries. “We will start the process very soon as the installation of E-PoS was affected due to the lockdown”, the official said.
10 PoS machines were already installed for trial and 50 machines reached the state just before lockdown for pilot project in Ri Bhoi, he said.
One Nation One Ration Card system
Under the proposed One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) system, the beneficiaries can avail ration from any FPS across the country.
The new system is based on a technological platform whereby identity of a beneficiary through bio metric authentication using the electronic point of sale device installed at all EPSs enables any beneficiary to purchase the quantity of food grains to which he or she is entitled under the NFSA.
Under ONORC, the department will use Aadhaar/OTP to validate beneficiaries and capture real time data.
This will enable the migrant workers to buy food grains from any FPS by using their existing cards. So far 17 states have come on board to implement ONORC.
The Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department Minister James Sangma recently said that the needy and left out non-NFSA card holders who are not covered under the scheme will be covered by other social security initiatives like Atma Nirbhar Bharat and open market sale scheme.