Chandigarh, May 29: The Congress government in Punjab is going to distribute sugar and tea leaves at 16,738 fair price shops at discounted rates from next month. The initiative is being taken under its smart ration card scheme, earlier known as the ‘Atta-Dal’ (wheat flour and pluses) scheme.
Also, the distribution of wheat flour and pluses would start by June 15 under the Aadhaar-enabled targeted public distribution system (TPDS). As many as 1.37 crore individuals from 35.26 lakh families across Punjab are covered under the TPDS.
In its election manifesto, the Congress had promised the then Atta-Dal scheme would be reviewed to make it more comprehensive. The manifesto promised that along with Atta-Dal, sugar and tea would be provided to all those covered under the scheme.
Director of the food, civil supply and consumer affairs department Anindita Mitra said soon a meeting would be held at the chief secretary-level to decide the quantity of sugar and tea leaves to be distributed to the eligible individuals under the scheme. She added by June 15, it would be ensured that Aadhaar numbers of all eligible individuals were seeded with the state government portal to avoid any probability of bogus beneficiaries.
After a large number of bogus beneficiaries of the scheme were discovered, a decision was taken in the council of ministers’ meeting in November last year to engage Bharat Electronics Limited, Broadcasting Engineering Consultants Indian Limited, and Electronics Corporation of India Limited to implement TPDS computerization.
The state government has ensured public distribution of ration through ePoS (electronic point of sale) devices using biometrics readers installed at fair price shops. In case of finger biometric failure due to any reason, the IRIS enabled identification would be done.
There are around 16,738 fair price shops across Punjab and nearly 1,400 inspectors of the food and supplies department would use an ePoS machine on rotation basis for approximately 10-12 fair price shops falling in their domain.
Under the scheme, the Punjab government procures wheat from the de-centralized procurement arrangement and distributes it through fair price shops under bi-annual distribution model. The beneficiaries get wheat in 30 kg sealed bags at Rs 2 per kilogram twice a year. Also, 500 gram of pulses are being distributed per person per month to eligible individuals at Rs 20 per kilogram.
Source Times of India
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