Team : Sumanyu Pande, Milind Goswami, Manisha Singh, Siddharth Bhattacharya, Nitin Jain

Several instances of dealers misbehaving with beneficiary happen.

Overcharging and underweighting of commodities is often done by fair price shops.

FPS dealers are indulged into adulteration and selling the commodities to open market.

Difficulty in getting mutations done like addition or deletion of members, change of address, change of Fair Price Shop.

Absence of beneficiary friendly and fool proof system to facilitate mutations.

Lack of an effective grievance redressal mechanism to address the problems faced by various stakeholders.

Lack of an automated system to allocate commodities upto FPS level.

Absence of a decision support system to effectively monitor the PDS ecosystem.

Inefficient monitoring due to lack of real time data.

India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) with a network of 4.99 Lakh Fair Price Shops (FPS), is perhaps the largest retail system of its type in the world. PDS is an important constituent of the strategy for poverty eradication and is intended to serve as a safety net for the poor whose number is more than 33 Crores and are nutritionally at risk. However, the sheer scale and complexity of the system has resulted in a number of inadequacies and deficiencies .

With the help of an automated system and a smart chain we can decrease the human involvement

and hence corruption. Smart !! Isn’t it ?

Database

Barcode no. is updated in the database on the local server in encrypted format.

Food grains and other commodities will be first checked for adulteration levels and will be discarded if the adulteration levels are high.

The commodities will then be packaged in sealed packets , having different sizes and a unique barcode on each packet.

The unique number in the barcode will be recorded by a scanner at each stage i.e., from packaging to reaching the beneficiary, if any package is missing, then at which level this fraud has been done can be found easily.

The Barcode is scanned and this code will be updated automatically in the database in encrypted format, so that no human can disturb the commodity codes and it can be kept unaltered and hence foolproof.

Testing-cum-packaging-cum-storing units will be set up, which will be controlled by the central government.

The Smart Ration Cards will help the

government to cope with Fake Ration

Cards. The Smart Machine

will make the process more transparent.

Every beneficiary will be provided with a Smart Ration Card(S.R.C), having unique id and all the encrypted information related.

At the time of receiving the commodities, his/her S.R.C will be swiped in the Smart Machine.

The dealer will scan the barcodes of the commodities demanded by the beneficiary.

The beneficiary will verify the obtained commodities by his/her thumb impression against each item received.

Local server will be updated instantly, while the central server will be updated monthly.

The data will be compared with the central database so, if any discrepancy is detected, that means the commodities have been tampered.

Central Government & Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare

Department

• issues district wise allocation orders with scanning the barcode no. given to each district and updating the database in presence of the transportation dealer.

District Manager – cum – Civil Supply

Officer (CSO) & officers at district level

Block level Officers

Responsibility of transportation dealer to take all issued barcode nos. to next level & see that databases are updated correctly at central and district level.

●responsible for putting all the barcodes received by the transportation dealer into the database in presence of transportation dealer . ● Prepare Block wise & storage wise allocation of packets & put into the database .

Responsibilities same as the level above b/w district & Block level.

• monthly retailer wise distribution list for the block and synchronizing the database as upper level.

All responsibilities same as upper level.

● synchronizes the database with transportation dealer.

●update the database about which packet barcode given to which smart ration card in presence of smart card user by swiping it in electronic machine.

Packaging of Commodities with BARCODE on each of it .

Fair Price Shops

The waterfall structure below depicts the transparency in the process of

taking the commodities to the beneficiaries.

Food grains sent for packaging

No. of packets allotted to card holders saved in local server are retrieved every week by zonal PDS center

Updation in presence of zonal PDS Center In charge.

Details of allotted packages to the transporter.

Info of allotted packets to FPS uploaded along with the weekly data of the packets sold by FPS to cardholders

No. of allotted packets sent to the FPS.

The database is synchronized at every level so

that there is no discrepancy in the process.

Depending upon the size and population of the state, a centrally recruited department will be formed which will consist of about 20 employees in each zonal PDS center.

Some fixed no. of such centers will be spread in various zones of a district as per the population of the district.

These zonal centers will be provided with internet connectivity to central database.

Any commodity under PDS, which has to be either sent from the zone or to be received in the zone will be coming to this center for updation to the database before they are sent to the Central Storehouse or the FPS respectively.

In case of any fraud by the FPS owner these centers will

be working as GRC (Grievance Redressal Centers) for anonymous complaint lodged by the beneficiaries .

The job of the employees of this centre will be to update the database of all the FPS’s that come under their zone to the central database.

They will also ensure that they have a survey every year to ascertain if there are any mutations like any family member added or removed , as per their birth or death respectively

Grievance Redressal System(GRS)

Call toll free Helpline to lodge the complaint. The details (in database) of allotments made at the

FPS to the complaint lodgers account will be

checked by the system & authenticated. If

complaint is found true, notice will be generated against the FPS owner.

Swipe in your card at the machine of nearest

GRC. The Ration allotment data of the

holder will be uploaded to the database and

tallied with the central server. In case of an issue the system will

generate a notice against the FPS owner.

Login to the national portal of PDS with their unique Smart card no. The complaint will be

lodged and authentication will be

done by the central database by tallying the

details of allotments made to the card & the

availability of commodities at the FPS.

IVRS Report @ GRC E-Filing

• Adulteration will be removed to a very high level. This is ensured by packaging the commodities at the time of dispatch from the main storage. Any tampering with the package will be classified illegal and actions will be taken as per the law.

• The introduction of bar code scanning at each level of transportation along with parallel synchronization ensures that all commodities reach their destinations positively without any fraudulence.

• The current levels of malnutrition, hunger and starvation of the poor public will be drastically reduced as the automated system will be ensuring that the commodities reach the economically weaker section with adequate quantity & quality.

• With a new department emerging for PDS, job opportunities will be increased throughout the country to cater the requirements of this system.

• Whenever there is a need for a complaint to be lodged, the identity of the beneficiaries will be kept secret .The database will automatically authenticate the complaint and take actions as per the data stored in it.

• The transporter level mishandling and fraudulence will be removed as the next level will accept the commodities only after proper cross-check with the database.

• The beneficiaries in a particular zone will be surveyed at least once in a year by the zonal PDC (Public Distribution Center) officials to keep a regular check on the no. of beneficiaries increased/decreased in that zone. This will ensure that no beneficiary is provided extra benefits and others are barred from them. This will also help the Government as it could accurately devise plans for the public under the PDS scheme.

1. censusindia.gov.in

2. Food Security and the Targeted Public Distribution System in India , by Dr Ruth Kattumuri (ASIA RESEARCH CENTRE WORKING PAPER)

3. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Pds-In-India-532078.html Research Paper No. 2006/98 The Public Distribution Systems of Food grains and Implications for Food Security

4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7432583.stm#map