The Civil Supplies department’s initiatives to check pilferage in the fair price shops through the installation of electronic-point of sale (PoS) machines and electronic weighing machines from August this year has been yielding good results, having secured more than 13 per cent returns to the State government.
The headcount
In Karimnagar district, the e-Pos machines were set up in 487 fair price shops. Distribution of rice was started after taking the thumb impression of the beneficiaries.
There were 2,70,949 ration cards including 2,54,951 food security cards (FSC), 15,986 Antyodaya food security card (AFSC) and 50 Annapurna (AP) cards.
Total family members (units) of all the cards was 8,11,990 persons and monthly requirement of rice has been 51,821 quintals per month.
Of the 2,70,949 ration cards, only 2,13,868 ration card holders have availed their monthly rice from the ration shops during the first month of implementation of e-Pos machines, in August. In September, only 2,37,265 card holders availed ration and in October, it was only 2,37,882. On an average, the government has been saving more than 2,000 to 3,600 quintals of rice per month.
Earlier, the ration shop dealers used to sell away the unclaimed rice in open market. But, with the introduction of e-Pos system, the distribution system has been completely streamlined and there was no instance of misuse of rice in any part of the district, said the officials of the Civil Supplies department. Now, the beneficiaries were selling the rice in the open market and we are planning to check the menace, they added.
‘No more confusion’
During the initial introduction of e-Pos, there was confusion among the beneficiaries and the fair price shop dealers. But slowly, the initial teething problems have vanished and now dealers have installed the 4G SIM cards for e-Pos machines instead of 2G SIM, on their own.
If we check the resale of the PDS rice in open market, the government returns would further increase, the officials said.
