The Telangana Civil Supplies department is expecting drastic cut in the number of Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries once the electronic point of sale (ePOS) terminals are in place at all the fair price shops (FPS) in the State.
Based on the results from the experimentation in the shops of the GHMC area, the officials are hopeful that the full-fledged installation of ePOS machines in all FPS’ of the State will see the beneficiaries come down by at least a crore.
As of now, the State has a total of 85.64 lakh cards, covering a population of 2.75 crore. Of these, over 50 lakh cards covering 1.92 crore were issued under the National Food Security Act, and the rest were issued by the State government, covering over 83 lakh people.
“There are many cardholders who do not draw ration, but simply keep them to avail themselves of other benefits. Their ration subsequently gets diverted to black market. Introduction of ePOS machines will address this issue,” says Commissioner, Civil Supplies, C.V.Anand.
The Android-based machines include features such as iris scanner, electronic weighing scale, voice player, digital payments facility, card swiping slot, and micro ATM.
Issue of ration through iris scanner will rule out irregularities, and cards of those who do not draw rations consistently could be scrapped. The machines have been functioning in 1,545 FPS’ in GHMC, Rangareddy, and Medchal districts since March 2016. In 15 months’ period since then, GHMC alone has recorded returns of ration worth ₹330 crore, Mr.Anand says.
Prior to introduction of ePOS, in February 2016, the monthly allotment of rice to the fair price shops was 27,253 metric tonnes (MT), of which 2,394 MT remained unlifted at the end of the month.
After introduction of ePOS, in the first 10 months, the average monthly allotment was 27,748 MT, and the average monthly quantity of rice not lifted was 7,518 MT which was 29 per cent of the total issue, and over three times more than the previous unlifted stocks.
In December 2016, the issued quantity was brought down to 25,748 MT, yet close to 5100 MT of rice was left unlifted, which amounted to 20 per cent of the whole.
Encouraged by the results, the department extended ePOS terminals to more shops in Vikarabad and Mahabubnagar districts too, taking the number of total shops equipped with the machines to 3,600.
Implementing the same throughout the state is expected to save 27,614 MT of rice per month, which would amount close to 16 per cent returns. Per annum, the savings would amount to Rs.828 crore in monetary terms, says Mr.Anand.
Installation will be completed in Siddipet, Sangareddy and Medak districts this month, while Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Hanamkonda, Jayashankar Bhupalpally and Mahbubabad districts will be taken up next month. The rest of the districts will be taken up in the subsequent months, Mr.Anand said.
