E-Paper
Punjab to provide wheat flour at doorsteps of beneficiaries from Oct 1
The Punjab minister said the home delivery service will introduce the concept of mobile fair price shops (MPS). For this, a transport vehicle fitted with a GPS and cameras will be used so that the handing over of flour to the beneficiary can be live-streamed.
Punjab government will be providing the option of home delivery of wheat flour to each beneficiary registered under national food security Act (NFSA), from October 1, food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said on Sunday.
The scheme will be implemented in a single phase for which the entire state has been divided into eight zones.
Besides, ration will now be distributed on a monthly basis, instead of quarterly.
The minister said the home delivery service will introduce the concept of mobile fair price shops (MPS). For this, a transport vehicle fitted with a GPS and cameras will be used so that the handing over of flour to the beneficiary can be live-streamed. The MPS vehicles will have mandatory weighing facility so that the beneficiary can check the weight of the flour being delivered. All the mandatory requirements such as biometric verification in MPS vehicle, printed weight slip for handing over to the beneficiary etc. will be provided. The licences will be issued by the department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs and will be given the same status as fair price shops.
According to Kataruchak, the new scheme is likely to save almost ₹170 crore of the beneficiaries in respect of the expenses incurred for grinding wheat into flour.
It may be mentioned that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on coming to power in Punjab in March this year, had decided to provide wheat flour to 1.83 crore beneficiaries in the state under NFSA. The government had said that each beneficiary will be offered wheat or wheat flour at a rate of ₹2 per kilogram
