Fair price shops in Tamil Nadu to get a makeover; government pushes for better ambience, ISO certification

Of the 2,950 shops chosen for renovation, 2,252 have been covered as on October 31

November 05, 2022 11:00 pm | Updated November 06, 2022 12:39 pm IST - CHENNAI

A renovated PDS outlet at Adyar in Chennai.

A renovated PDS outlet at Adyar in Chennai. | Photo Credit: K.V. SRINIVASAN

 

Fair price shops, ordinarily associated with poor ambience, are getting a makeover in the State.

Apart from sprucing up of façade, the shops are bidding for the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certification.

As on October 31, of the 2,950 shops chosen for the renovation project, 2,252 have been covered. Likewise, 3,662 shops received the ISO 9001:2015 certification and 930 shops got the ISO 28000-2007 certification as on November 1.

Also Read | Mobile application for fair price shop inspections launched

There are 33,445 shops in total in the State, of which 23,973 function full-time and the remaining function part-time. “We have just made a beginning and are aware that there is a long way to go,” said an official from the Cooperation Department.

As per the renovation plan, 75 shops each have been selected in 37 out of 39 civil supplies districts. Work has been completed in all of the 92 allotted shops in Erode. In case of Ramanathapuram, 55 of the identified 83 shops have experienced improvements. Among the districts with poor performance are Mayiladuthurai and Theni, where only eight and 12 shops have been covered.

Also Read | Fair price shops to be inspected regularly

The ISO certification in public distribution system means that the shops have established mechanisms to prevent adulteration or safety hazards to food items they handle and supply. The shops, which have been following the quality standards required for the ISO certification, are being encouraged to ensure proper documentation as it would help in ensuring that standards are not only met on a one-time basis but can be verified from time to time, the official explained, and added that efforts were being made to gradually bring all the shops under the process.

Also Read | Dearness Allowance hiked for fair price shop employees

Also, new shops are being built for the rented ones and those in dilapidated condition.

Emphasising that training and capacity building sessions were being held for the staff concerned, the official said that the focus was to ensure that employees adopt people-friendly attitude. Walls of the shops were being utilised for disseminating messages of public importance.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.