The State government is upbeat and Krishna District Collector Babu A. explains the reason: “Our experiment with the Aadhaar-enabled Public Distribution System (AePDS) with PoS devices for automation of 511 fair price shops (FPSs) in Krishna district as a pilot project has saved Rs. 1.91 crore a month.
If the same mode is applied to the existing 2,155 FP shops across Krishna district, it would enhance the monthly savings to Rs. 8.05 crore and annually, it would save us Rs. 92.62 crore,” explained a beaming Mr. Babu.
To bring in transparency, accountability and efficiency, Andhra Pradesh has digitised the entire ration card database and seeding of Aadhaar number into the database.
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The objective of the AePDS through e-PoS is to ensure that only genuine cardholder or his/her family members whose name is listed in the ration card can buy the commodities.
It would help record all FPSs transactions electronically which enables real time accounts of opening stock, daily sales and closing stock. This would in turn facilitate monthly allotment of stocks to the FPSs based on the stock position available in the MIS and to facilitate monitoring and detection of fraudulent transactions, if any.
Besides expanding the electronic mode of distribution to the remaining 1,644 FP shops in the district during the current month, the district administration is also contemplating introduction of portability in PDS. “This would mean that the ration card holder can procure commodities from any FP shop irrespective of the place where his card belongs to,” said Mr. Babu.
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The Collector said there is also a proposal to increase commission for the FP shop dealers from the saved money. “This would be done without causing any extra burden to the exchequer,” he said.
Linkage of ePoS to the supply chain management is a crucial step that enabled the whole process. Mandal-level stock points have been linked to FP shops through seamless integration of supply chain management and ePoS. “Computers and electronic weighing machines have been provided at all mandal level stock (MLS) points in Krishna district,” informed Mr. Babu.
Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, meanwhile, has complimented ‘team Krishna’ led by District Collector Babu for being in the forefront in installation of ePoS in all fair price shops across the district.