Ration at doorstep, GPS-tracked supply chain

With inflation hitting people hard, the state government is looking at ways to revamp the Public Distribution System (PDS) that is aimed at providing essential commodities to the poor. The government has received flak for the way it has handled the inflationary situation. With the revamp of the PDS, the state hopes to indirectly control inflation.

With inflation hitting people hard, the state government is looking at ways to revamp the Public Distribution System (PDS) that is aimed at providing essential commodities to the poor. The government has received flak for the way it has handled the inflationary situation. With the revamp of the PDS, the state hopes to indirectly control inflation.

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State’s food and civil supplies minister, Anil Deshmukh, on Wednesday told the assembly that his department was planning new ways to curb black marketing and plug loopholes in the age old PDS.

Deshmukh said that the department was mulling over extending a pilot project currently implemented in Nashik, where food grains are delivered almost at the consumer’s doorstep to avoid pilferage.

He was replying to a question raised about black marketing of kerosene in Pune, Ahmednagar, Buldhana and Sangli districts. He admitted that black marketing was rampant in the state.

“In Pune, we have adopted a global positioning system (GPS) to track black marketers. This device can monitor kerosene tankers from the time they are filled at stations to the last stop,” he said.

He added that this technology would be adopted to track the supply chain of all the essential commodities after they leave government godowns to ensure no goods pilferage.

The state government has also decided to cancel the licence of those ration shops that have been warned twice earlier of irregularities.

Under the pilot project, in 40 villages of Nashik, local revenue officers assess the quantity of food grains required, collect the money and then disburse goods at the Gram Sabha.

This project has been successful in eliminating fake beneficiaries and siphoning of food grains since shop owners cannot store food grain sacks in the shop, said a food and civil supplies official, on condition of anonymity.