The State government has decided to become part of the Centre’s Scheme for Modernisation and Reforms through Technology in Public Distribution System (SMART-PDS).
The Food and Civil Supplies department issued an order in this regard on Monday, enabling the State to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union government. The State Cabinet had recently approved a proposal submitted by the Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.
The SMART-PDS initiative is envisaged to prevent food grain leakage and increase the efficiency of the distribution chain. The technology-based initiative aims at bringing the food distribution network of all States under a single platform. It will also integrate related operations of agencies, including Food Corporation of India and Central Warehousing Corporation. The platform will enable authorities to monitor food grain movement at various levels, from procurement to distribution, on a real-time basis.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had estimated a project cost of ₹349.9 crore for the period from 2023-2026. The Union and State governments will bear the cost of the scheme in the ratio of 60:40.
According to official sources, the State will be required to shoulder the expenses of three project components such as institutional setup/training capacity building, provisioning of cloud infrastructure and setting up of a command control centre.
With the migration of data on ration card holders to central servers, smart ration cards will be distributed to the beneficiaries of the public distribution system.
