Sahara

WHAT IS PDS?

Public Distribution System (PDS) is a poverty alleviation program which contributes towards the social welfare of the people by providing essential commodities like rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene at reasonable prices.

Principal instrument in the hands of State Governments

Providing safety net to the poor against the spiralling rise in prices of essential commodities

Originated in the 'rationing' system introduced by the British during the World War I

Important role in attaining higher levels of the household food security

Completely eliminating the threats of famines from the face of the country.

Provide to the beneficiaries two cereals, rice and wheat and four essential commodities viz. sugar, edible oil, soft coke and kerosene oil

Supply of additional items through PDS is especially relevant in interior areas, which are away from markets.

General Problems With Public Distribution System

• Not accessible to every consumer.. About 73% did not get any food from PDS.

• Irregular delivery schedule of FPS quota is a persistent problem in most states.This has contributed to low off-take by consumers and hence to large diversion of subsidised grains to the open market.

Reach and delivery

• The grains wont reach to FPS but goes to open market selling , getting the margins which benefits the middlemen i.e. FPS owners and officials of the distribution wing.

• .

Leakage

• This government policy aims at subsidizing price of commodities lower than minimum support price. With the alarming inflation, the minimum support price will bound to increase. The subsidy will henceforth increase.

Subsidy

• Monitoring of activities of FPS through inspection by district level officials was irregular and in effective

• In addition to leakages PDS suffers from diversions of subsidised grains to unintended benefeciaries(APL household) because of Error of Inclusion

• The PDS sytem leads to the creation of illegal hoardings and inappropriate storage of food grains to inflate market values.

Fair Price Shops : Not being FAIR

Fair price shops are not viable. Most shops do not display stock statements, and bill books are poorly maintained. Issuance of bills for the transactions undertaken is done rarely and stock books are improperly maintained. Card holders complained about the FPS owners charging higher prices for commodities and receiving less quantity than what they are entitled to. Shops use unfair practices in distribution such as adulteration, improper weighing, etc.

Illiterate consumers are sold less quantity of ration through taking their thumb prints for different quantities.

Deceitful dealers replace good supplies received from the F.C.I(Food Corporation of India) with inferior stock and sell FCI stock in the black market.This leads to a great earning for owners.

Adulteration is the most common thing which is done by FPS. Thus compromising with the nutritional value of ration.

Proper report of ration transactions is not maintained Remaining ration of FPS in open market is sold at higher margins

for their own benefits, thus reducing the government’s subsidy. The Fair Price dealers seldom display rate chart and quantity

available in the block-boards in front of the shop

IDENTIFICATION & ISSUANCE OF BPL CARDS In India, government has set the poverty benchmark to identify people and family requiring government aid and assistance. Therefore to such families a Below Poverty Line (BPL) card is issued so that they can purchase subsidized grains from ration. Due to Corruption many valid people are not able to get cards. Public servants working at issuing authority, most of the time demands money to issue a BPL card due to which many families are denied from government subsidies. No. of the ration cards issued are more than the actual no. of BPL families. It leads to the illegal storage of the food and then selling them at higher margins in market. Many BPL families are not able to acquire ration cards either because they are seasonal migrant workers or because they live in unauthorized colonies

• rights to purchase ration from any of the FPS rather than allotted fps for helping migrants Flexibility in FPS

• Central govt. should provide subsidy to state govt. based on the formula and let them decide on the subsidies for various commodities. Decentralisation of operation

• State govt. can hire a private agency to monitor the PDS process. Monitoring

• Pds units with maximum connectivity should be periodically felicitated by the government

Regular incentives to the performing PDS unit

• Provision for the complaints resistor for the consumer so that they can lodge their complaints with the authorities directly

complaints

Proposed solutions Implementation Impact

SOLUTION

BIOMETRIC RATION CARDS

IMPLEMENTATION

Setting Government shops 1:Establishing government shops providing necessary commodities especially in remote areas. 2:A person should be allowed to take comodities of his share from any shop,so as to make things more easy for the people(like credit and atm card system). 3:Person employed in these stores be of some private company to minimize the chances of corruption.

monitoring

1:Around 22% grain is wasted during transportation,thus registering the goods before supplying will ensure track of exact no. Of items supplied and received on the other side.This can be implemented by using code system(eg:barcode). 2: CCTV cameras will be there in every FCI godown.Authorities will monitor warehouses through its vigilance officers and CCTV’s. 3:Surprise checking at FCI and providing a Helpline number to register Complaints against corrupt officials will help to check corruption

accessibility 1:Replacing the old ration cards with new ones which will have all information like Name,age,Locality,income,etc feeded so that a person gets his share of grains 2:Implementing Biometric (finger print or Iris Recognition)system to wipe out the posssibility of ghost cards

LEVELS INVOLVED

IMPACT

• 1:This PDS system will cover whole of BPL populations thus decreasing hunger and malnutrition.

• 2:Government should buy the grains directly from farmers.This will ensure that farmers get the due benefits due to removal of middleman system(thus improving lives of farmers and thus preventing them from taking extreme measures like suicide).

• 3:As proposed by the government Food Security Bill may get implemented quite smoothly.

• 4:If we are successful in reducing corruption by thorough checking,the concept of subsidy will be correctly implemented leading to upliftment of poor and needy.

CHALLENGES

• 1:Adulteration: There will always

be chances of mixing original grains with cheap materials,like adulterating wheat flour with rice or maize flour,sugar with caustic soda,chalk,etc.

• 2:It will be difficult to implement modern technology in rural areas(like implementaion of atm type ration card).Even if it is implemented it will be difficult to maintain the instruments due to lack of technicians in rural areas.

• 3:Replacing good quality commodities with Sub-standard one.

• 4:Updating the data of people from time to time.

MITIGATION

• 1:Employing technicians in

rural areas(keeping atleast 3 in 1 district) so as to maintain the machines.

• 2:Training should be given to employees so as to make them comfortable with the system.

• 3:Setting of NGOs to make the locals aware of malpractices like adulteration and ways to recognise an adulterated product.And also encourage them to report about these malpractices to vigilance committee,

• 4:Setting of vigilance committee to check various malpractices and punish the wrongdoers.

FCI GODOWNS

Farmers Database of warehouses

Packaging unit in FCI godown

Packed ration Packed ration

Beneficiaries mobile FPS in remote Areas

Ration Purchase money

SALARY

FCI database

WAREHOUSE WAREHOUSE Database of all FPS

FPS FPS FPS FPS

FPS

Terminal e-card reader Printer

FPS Database

E ration card linked with

Aadhar

FPS OWNER BANK FCI account

TEAM SAHARA

● SNEHIL RAYAL IIT MADRAS

● EKANSH VERMA IIT MADRAS ● SHANTANU RAJPUT IIT INDORE

● PRAVEEN KRISHNA IIT MADRAS

● VIJENDRA SINGH IIT MADRAS