JUSTICE WADHWA
COMMITTEE
ON
PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
SYSTEM (PDS)
REPORT ON
COMPUTERISATION OF PDS OPERATIONS
INDEX
|
S.NO. |
PARTICULARS |
PAGE |
|
A |
Preface |
i-iii |
|
1. |
Introduction |
1 |
|
2. |
Smart
card |
6 |
|
3. |
Point
of Sale device (PoS) |
7 |
|
4. |
Charging the PoS device |
9 |
|
5. |
Using
biometrics as a tool for authentication of identity of
beneficiaries. |
14 |
|
6. |
Connectivity
|
16 |
|
7. |
Modes
of automating PDS operations |
19 |
|
8. |
Weighment |
21 |
|
9. |
Prescribing
of uniform standards |
22 |
|
10. |
Computerisation initiatives by various States |
25 |
|
11. |
Other
modes of automating the distribution process Ø
Radio
Frequency Identification Tags Ø
Global
Positioning System Ø
Food Stamps |
34 35 36 |
|
12. |
Suggestions
from NIC |
40 |
|
13 |
Conclusions |
43 |
PREFACE
In
the matter:
Writ
Petition (C) No. 196/2001 – People’s
Civil Liberties V/S
1.
Large scale
corruption resulting from diversion and leakages of food grains meant for the
poor populace of this country is the bane of the targeted Public Distribution System.
2.
The Committee
in its report for the Government of Delhi and further reports, now separately
submitted, for the States of Jharkhand , Karnataka
& Orissa has recommended least human intervention and end to end automation
and computerization of the complete PDS chain.
- Considering the
magnitude of the malaise affecting the System the Committee has felt the
need to give a separate report suggesting introduction of computerization
of the entire distribution chain,
right from the procurement process
initiated by the Food Corporation of
- With a view to
evaluate the different modes and tools of computerization the Committee
held discussions with senior officers of National Informatics Center,
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Department of Telecommunications, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd as well as private entities concerned with solar energy, besides discussion with representatives of the Governments
of Haryana Karnataka Chhatisgarh Jharkhand Orissa and Chandigarh
. The Committee also examined the
reports on computerization of
various models presently being implemented by some other States The
report, therefore, comprehensively deals
with the various modes of automating PDS operations.
5.
The Committee
thanks Dr. B.K. Gairola, Director General and , Ms Ranjana Nagpal, Senior Technical Director of the National Informatic Center, Dr. B. Bhargava,
Director Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Mr. P.K. Panigrahi,
Senior DDG(BW) Department of Tele Communication, Mr. D.P. Singh, General
Manager, BSNL, Mr. Ajay Bhattacharya, Administrator, Universal Service
Obligation Fund, Food Secretaries of the
Government of Haryana, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttarakhand
and Chandigarh who shared their valuable views ,
opinions and information with the
Committee during the study. The valuable
inputs received from them have been incorporated in the present report. This report
is the result of that.
6.
The Committee
also record its appreciation of the help rendered by Ms. Jasleen
Kaur, representative of Price Water Cooper House, Mr.
Shobit Verma, Director, Expedien E – Solutions Ltd, Mr. Amit
Chugh of Cosmos Ignite Innovations and Mr. Ravi Rangan of Comat Technologies,
- Conclusion of the
report is given at the end.
- Considering however, that there is large scale
diversion of food-grains meant for
the poor, it is suggested that directions
may be issued to the Secretary, Department of Food & Public
Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public
Distribution; Director General, National Informatics Centre; Secretary, New & Renewable Energy; Secretary Department of Telecommunications and Administrator, Universal Service
Obligation Fund to take immediate steps towards computerization of the
PDS.
(Justice
D.P. Wadhwa)
Chairman
Central
Vigilance Committee on
Public
Distribution System
Dated: 23.2.2009
REPORT
Introduction:
1. The PDS Control Order, 2001 came into
existence almost eight years ago. The Targeted Public Distribution System had
been in operation since 1997. It was
realized that the large scale diversion can be curbed by computerization and
therefore provision was made for providing computerized codes to the Fair Price
Shops (FPS) and monitoring the functioning of the Public Distribution System at
the FPS level through the computer network of the National Informatics Center
(NIC) installed in the District NIC centers.
The Committee in its report submitted
to the Hon’ble Supreme Court on 21.8.2007, pertaining
to Delhi, had suggested that PDS operations be computerized and human
intervention be reduced to the extent possible, so as to check the diversions
and leakages which plague the system at present.
Recognising the fact that the need of the hour
is the end to end computerization of the Public Distribution System, the
Committee is of the view that if the disbursement to the beneficiaries in the State
can be equated to the allocation to the State, there can be no diversion. In
order to achieve this objective the first and foremost is the automation of
allocation process at all stages. The State Government gets allocation of food
grain from the Central Government though the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
The NIC has installed and running the application called IISFM at all the FCI centers. The allocation is received by
the States in their godowns and then the State makes
District wise allocation. The District Supply Officer then makes allocation to
each Block/Taluk, from where allocation is made to
each FPS. It is necessary that each of these steps is computerized. The
information is conveyed through the District NIC centers to the Food and
Supplies department of the State and to the FCI. The allocation for the next
month at each level should be made on the basis of the in formation so
collected through the computer network.
In the present Public
Distribution System (PDS), paper ration
cards are issued to eligible families and wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene oil
etc are being offered at subsidised prices as per
their eligibility recorded in the ration cards.
The record of eligibility and transactions is maintained manually both
in the ration cards and the register maintained in the fair price shops. This record keeping is not foolproof and is
prone to human errors and tampering. Foodgrains are transferred from FCI store to States and
then to regional levels. There is lot of
pilferage at every level and no foolproof central monitoring system is
there. Other deficiencies of this system
are:
·
Multiple ration cards being
issued under a single name
·
Faulty system of issue and
record keeping
·
Pilferage - PDS foodgrains find way to market and all the lot don’t reach
the eligible/needy person
·
No bio-matric
identification for the users
·
No central monitoring system to
track the carriage trucks
·
The delivery mechanism has no
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device)
There
is a need for foolproof monitoring system starting from central store to fair
price shops covering transactions at all levels and transport.
The
Committee is of the opinion that the ration card database should be digitized
and distribution to the beneficiary should be made after biometric
identification. However, necessary safeguards must be put in place to ensure
that the biometric details of beneficiaries which have been captured for the
purpose of automation of the PDS should not be used for non PDS purposes. This
would mean that a smart card having the biometric finger prints of the
beneficiary will have to be prepared and used for distribution.
In
order to achieve this business rules at all levels have to be identified and
automated thereby optimizing the internal operations and communications. The
following steps have to be integrated to cover the complete food chain.
·
State
wise allocation of food grains by Central Government.
·
District
wise allocation of food grains by State Government.
·
Block/
Taluk wise allocation of food grains by District
Administration.
·
Storage
of food grains in godowns
·
Off
take of food grains against allocations
·
Distribution
of Food grains to the Fair Price Shops.
·
The Committee held discussions with Dr.
B.K Gairla Director General and Ms. Ranjana Nagpal Senior Technical
Director, of the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The Committee was informed
that the Central Government had approved the implementation of a smart card
based computerization project in the state of Haryana and the Union Territory
of Chandigarh on a pilot basis which is to be funded
by the Central Government. To begin with three districts of Haryana have been
identified. In terms of the detailed project report made available to the
Committee, the smart card is to be used in conjunction with a hand held battery
operated device referred to as a Point of Sale (PoS)
device.
Keeping in view the fact that the
supply of electricity in the remote, rural areas of the country is erratic and
undependable, the Committee enquired from the NIC as to how the battery
contained in the PoS device would be recharged when
electricity supply was not available. The Committee was informed by the NIC
that it had nothing to do with the setting up of the necessary infrastructure.
The Committee found this response extremely disturbing in as much as the
availability of avenues for charging the PoS and
making connectivity available are essential requirements for the successful
implementation of the computerized model. The Committee therefore in the attempt
to identify alternative sources of energy as well as means to ensure that
connectivity for uploading of data is provided held discussions with officials
from, Dr. B. Bhargava Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy, Government of India, Mr. P.K Panigrahi Senior
DDG (BW) Department of Telecommunications, Mr. D.P Singh General Manager BSNL,
Mr. Ajay Bhattacharya Administrator Universal Service Obligation Fund, Private
entities involved in the field of solar energy. The Committee also held
discussions with representatives of the Governments of Haryana, Karnataka, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttrakhand,
The Committee examined the
implementation of a model wherein the end-user/beneficiary can be serviced
using a PoS device which can be used with a smart
card or only with biometrics or with both. Each of these concepts are being
described herein below,
2. Smart Card:
Smart cards are secure electronic
devices which are used for storing data pertaining to the beneficiary, in a
secure form. It is pertinent to note that only authorized persons can view the
data stored on the card and/or write information thereon. When a smart card is
used in PDS operations, the following beneficiary data can be stored on the
card,
(i) the name of the beneficiary, family
members,
(ii) address
of the beneficiary,
(iii) biometrics
of the beneficiary and family members,
(iv) category in which the beneficiary falls
(i.e. APL, BPL, AAY) and the monthly entitlement
A smart card resembles a credit card in
size and shape. Integrated circuits/microprocessor are embedded in these cards
to enable them to process data. These cards can receive inputs, which are
processed — by way of the Integrated Circuit Card applications — and deliver an
output. The card can be embedded with a hologram to
avoid counterfeiting. [1]
3. Point
of Sale device (PoS):
A PoS device
is a single fully integrated machine having sufficient memory to store
transaction data over a period of time. The objective of using this device is
to track off-take of commodities by beneficiaries with precision and to thereby
eliminate avenues for diversion of stock. The device has the capability of
carrying out sales and billing transactions, and to print the receipt of a
completed transaction.
The other main features of a PoS device are:
·
It
is powered by a removable, rechargeable high capacity Li-ion battery, which
supports 170-200 transactions. The power requirement for the device is 20 W (12
V, 1.8 A) when a transaction is being performed. This device should be able to
function for 5-6 hours before it requires to be recharged.[2]
·
It
is a tamper proof device to protect data.
·
Enables
authentication of the biometric fingerprint of beneficiaries.
·
Stores
data of transactions carried out in the month.
·
Can
function off-line and the stored data can be transferred subsequently as and
when connectivity becomes available.
4. Charging the PoS
device:
In order
for the PoS device to function, a crucial requirement
is the availability of a dependable source of energy for recharging the battery
contained in the device.
The PoS has an inbuilt 12 V battery of 1.8 AH.
Keeping in mind the fact that a PoS device if
deployed as part of the effort to computerise PDS
operations, would be required to function even in areas where electricity
supply is not available or is erratic and undependable, the Committee examined
the use of alternative sources of energy for charging the PoS.
The Committee found that solar power
is one such dependable and readily available source of energy, which can be
harnessed for this purpose. In
Solar Insolation
diagram of
The Committee is of the view that
solar power can be used for charging the PoS
device. The Committee found that there
are other available systems which provide reliable power for the PoS with three days autonomy i.e. it can operate with 3
continuous days without sunlight. These
solar power packs consists of a solar PV panel (10 Wp)
battery (12 V, 7 AH) and Charge Controller.
These power packs can be charged by both AC mains and through the SPV. An
estimation of the rating calculations for the power requirements of the PoS have been done for the benefit of the Committee by Mr. P.K Panigrahi,
Senior DDG (BW) Department of Telecommunications.
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The Committee held discussions with
Dr. B. Bhargava, Director, Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy, Government of India, who was of the opinion that solar
chargers would be the best option for recharging the PoS
in areas where the electricity supply is erratic. He informed the Committee
that a solar charger essentially is comprised of a solar panel and a small unit
which would provide power supply of 220V.[3]
The Committee has been informed that
BSNL has provided Battery Banks of about 200 AH at 48 volts in small rural
exchanges together with 10/15 Kva generators run on
diesel. BSNL informed the Committee that these locations could possibly be used
for charging the PoS. The Department of
Telecommunications is also providing 10,000 villages with satellite telephones
which have 100 Watts SPV Panel which charges a 12 volts/ 42 AH
In this respect the Committee also
held discussions with Mr. Amit Chugh,
Founder and CEO, Cosmo Ignite Innovations (viz. a Solar Lamp Company), with
regard to the functionalities of the Solar lamp manufactured by his company.
The objective of inviting Mr. Chugh was to explore
the possibility of using the solar panel developed by his company for charging
the Li-on battery contained in the hand held Point of Sale (PoS)
device. Mr. Chugh confirmed that the solar panel
which was used for charging the battery which powered the lamp could be adapted
for charging the hand held Point of Sale device. He also stated that the
battery could be charged in a time frame of 4-6 hours depending upon the weather
conditions and the back up time of the fully charged battery would be
approximately 6 hours. Mr. Chugh further stated that
the size of the solar panel could be modified depending upon the requirements.
He stated that his company does not supply the solar panel separately. Mr. Chugh stated that the market price of solar lamp and panel
was Rs. 2500/-.
5. Using biometrics as a tool for
authentication of identity of beneficiaries:
In order to curb diversions and to
ensure that stock under PDS is issued to actual bona fide beneficiaries, a
template of the biometric details of beneficiaries can be captured and stored
in the PoS device and/or in the smart card and prior
to performing the sale transaction at the Fair Price Shop, the biometrics can
be cross checked with the pre-stored template as a method of authentication of
the identity of the beneficiary.
Biometric identification is the
process of identifying a person through personal characteristics such as iris
and retinal patters, fingerprints, voice etc. Since these are unique
characteristics which are individual specific and therefore differ from person
to person, they form a secure method of authentication/verification of
identity.
The PDS in its current form has
failed to achieve its intended goal of providing food security to the needy
owing to large scale diversion of food grains. Such diversion is made possible
by the presence of ghost ration cards in circulation and enables retailers to
siphon off stock by making fictitious transaction entries reflecting sales,
without issuing any stock. It is possible to weed out these bogus/ghost cards
by,
(i)
Conducting
a comprehensive independent survey of the population in order to identify the
intended beneficiaries,
(ii)
By
capturing their biometrics (for the purposes of the present report it is
suggested that fingerprints be captured) and storing the same on a central data
base. These can then be cross-verified
with the finger print of the beneficiary at the time of issue of stock.
(iii)
Implementing
a system which eliminates the reliance on human interaction for identification
of a beneficiary.
(iv) However, necessary safeguards must be put
in place to ensure that the biometric details of beneficiaries which have been
captured for the purpose of automation of the PDS should not be used for non
PDS purposes.
Once this process is completed it
will result in the elimination of multiple/counterfeit cards in as much as PDS
commodities would be disbursed only when the biometrics of the beneficiary at
the retail outlet matches the data stored on the database.
6. Connectivity:
The Committee is of the view that
connectivity which is required for making PDS web enabled could be provided by
making use of infrastructure that has been/is being established by the Government
of India under the Common Services Centers Scheme and the Universal Service
Obligation Fund.
A.
Infrastructure established under the State Wide Area Network’s:
One of the core
infrastructure components of the National E governance plan of the
Central Government is the State Wide Area Networks
(SWAN). The Department of Information Technology, Government of India
(hereafter referred to as DIT), is the nodal department for SWAN implementation
in the 29 States and 6
B Infrastructure set up using the Universal Service Obligation
Fund:
The Central Government established
the USO Fund with the fundamental objective of providing access to ‘basic’ telegraph services.
Subsequently, the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act 2006, was passed on
29.12.2006, to amend the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, so as to enable provision
of all types of telegraph services.
During the 6 years from 2002-2008 the
funds which have been disbursed have been utilised
for providing in Stream-I and II wireline services
namely,
(a) Village Public Telephones (VPT’s)/Rural Community telephones (RCP’s)
(b) Rural
Household Telephones (RDEL’s)
The Rules for administration of the
Fund known as Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules were originally notified on
26.03.2004. Thereafter on 17.11.2006 the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules
2006 were notified to enable support for mobile services and broadband
connectivity in rural and remote areas of the country.[5]
New schemes are being introduced under Streams III & IV, which contemplate
the creation of all types of rural telecommunication infrastructure, by
providing wireless services such as,
(a) setting up of infrastructure to provide
mobile services in rural areas,
(b) provision of broadband connectivity in
villages in a phased manner. It is pertinent to note that this scheme aims to
provide broadband connectivity Gram Panchayats,
Primary Health Centres, Schools. It is proposed to
utilize the existing wireless and landline infrastructure to provide these
services.
(c) starting with the State of Assam it is
proposed to improve the Optical Fibre Cable network
between Block HQ’s and District HQ’s.
In Stream V the Central Government is
to identify items for the creation and development of general infrastructure in
rural areas.
It appears to the Committee that it
is possible to make available the infrastructure being set up using the USOF
for PDS operations also.
7.
Modes of automating PDS operations:
Keeping in mind the fact that
connectivity might not be available in the remote areas of the country, the
Committee examined the feasibility of model which can function both in the off-line
and online modes.
On-line mode- Each stage in the distribution
chain is connected to the Central Server containing the data base. Connectivity may be provided either through
a landline or through GSM/CDMA device. In this mode the infrastructure being
set up using the USOF such as Village Public Telephones (VPT’s)
can be used for providing connectivity.
Off-line mode - In this mode owing to the fact
that the infrastructure of connecting each and every outlet situated in remote
corners of the country, has not been put in place and is an on-going process,
transaction details of the retail outlet can be stored on the PoS/Smart Card allotted to each retailer. These devices
contain sufficient memory for storage of one month’s transaction details at the
expiry of each fortnight/month the retailer is required to take the PoS device/Smart Card to the nearest point where
connectivity to the central server is available, which may be either the Gram Panchayat/Block level and transfer details to the central
data base. The Committee in the course
of its visits to different States found that in Karnataka connectivity is
available till the hobli[6] level and is expected to be available till the
gram panchayat level soon. In Orissa connectivity is
available till the block level. The uploading of data can be done through these
pockets where connectivity is available at present.
8. Weighment:
Another important facet of an
efficient and transparent distribution system is the mechanism which is used
for weighment. In the system as it exists today, weighment is required to be done at 3 of 4 stages in the
distribution chain,
(i) At the FCI when stock is released to the
transporters,
(ii) At
the whole sale point
(iii) At
the retail point
(iii) At
the time of sale of the stock to the beneficiary.
The Committee during its visits to
storage godowns and retail outlets in different
States found that the weighing is done manually using a beam scale. The Food
Corporation of
The Committee is of the view that it
is imperative that weighing be done using electronic scales at each stage and
the weighment mechanism be integrated with the PoS device. This
will mean that the quantity which is being transferred from one stake holder to
another in the distribution chain is automatically reflected on the smart card.
As an additional safeguard the weigh bridge at the storage godown
should be linked to the internet, so that the precise details of stock, being
dispatched, i.e. quantity, date of dispatch etc. are readily available for
viewing by the beneficiaries.
9.
Prescribing of Uniform standards:
The Committee is of the view that
uniform standards must be prescribed for the three critical aspects of the
computerized model, i.e. the PoS device, the smart
cards and the capturing of biometric details, in as much as this is required
for ensuring inter-compatibility and to promote connectivity and operational
efficiency. A Committee must be set up, consisting of experts from the NIC,
DOT, USOF, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, National Institute for Smart
Government for promoting National level connectivity and for prescribing uniform
standards for software and hardware components which should be binding on
States.
SCOSTA specifications for smart cards:
The Govt. of India is deploying the
smart card technology in various applications such as Indian Driving Licences, Vehicle Registration Certificates, National
Identity, Electronic Passports etc. A technical Sub-committee was set up to
draw up operating system specifications for the smart card based Indian Driving
Licences (DL) and Vehicle Registration Certificates
(RC) on in June 2001. Smart Card Operating System for Transport Applications (SCOSTA)
specifications[7] were
defined primarily by IIT Kanpur alongwith
this committee. The SCOSTA specification is largely compliant with the
international ISO 7816 standard (parts 4 to 9) for smart cards. Subsequently,
the standards were enhanced to support secure messaging which is necessary in
many applications involving contact-less communications. The enhanced standard
(SCOSTA-CL) was defined by IIT Kanpur and was
released to public in July 2006. The first major application of this standard
is the e-Passport that was launched in
Standards for bio-metric
identification
The Committee is of the view that in
order to make tracking of individual beneficiaries using biometric
identification effective uniform standards have to be prescribed. Some of the
criteria which should be kept in mind while prescribing standards are,[9]
(i) Selection of
fingers: Studies have revealed that large scale identification systems require
two fingers, which could be the thumb (which being larger, contain more
information), forefinger (are more ergonomic and are more varied across
population).
(ii) Image quality: standards should be
prescribed for image resolution and size
10. Computerisation
of PDS operations- Initiatives by different States.
The Committee examined the
steps being taken by different States for computerization of PDS operations. These
are being described in brief herein below,
(i) Haryana
The proposal is to issue smart cards to each
level of the distribution chain, i.e. the transporter, the FPS dealer and the
consumer. In Haryana the agency which is performing the task of transportation
of food grains from the godown to the FPS dealer is
called the CONFED.
In the proposed system,
when the CONFED
transporters take delivery from the godown, Depot
Holder wise distribution information (i.e. the FPS details and quantity
allotted) are loaded on the transporter’s smart card using the STT and 2
receipts are generated one for the transporter and the other is the copy for
the godown in charge. In this system only a data
entry is made and the weight of the stock loaded on the truck is not cross
checked using an electronic weigh bridge in conjunction with the smart card. In
order to eliminate human intervention to the maximum extent electronic weigh
bridges should be used at all whole sale storage points and the stock loaded in
the trucks should be checked using the electronic weigh bridge in conjunction
with the smart card.
When the truck reaches the FPS to deliver the stock, the
CONFED transporter inserts his card in the Depot Holder’s STT. Stock gets
automatically transferred in the Depot Holder’s terminal, the transaction
report gets stored in the Transporters card and 2 receipt’s are generated, i.e.
one for the FPS dealer and the other for the transporter.
The consumer comes to the FPS for
purchase of food grains, inserts his smart card in the STT, places his finger
on the terminal for bio-metric verification. After the details are verified,
the entitlement and price payable are displayed on the terminal. The FPS dealer
thereafter completes the transaction by issuing the desired quantity to the
consumer and the details of the transaction are loaded on the smart card and a
paper receipt is simultaneously issued to the consumer. The system does not
provide for authentication by the consumer, prior to the completion of the
transaction as confirmation that the correct quantity of the stock has been
issued to him. The system should verify the card of the consumer on its being
inserted in the STT and there should be no need to verify the biometric details
at this stage. It is only after the desired quantity is entered by the FPS
dealer in the STT and the same is received by the consumer, should the consumer
be required to authenticate the transaction by placing his finger on the
designated spot on the STT, thereby confirming that the transaction has been
completed to his satisfaction. If he does not do so it would signify that there
is some deficiency in the transaction and the transaction would not be
completed and recorded on the STT or the smart card.
(ii) Karnataka
Karnataka is the only State which has
already commenced the actual implementation of computerisation
of PDS operations. The Karnataka model does not contemplate issuing a smart
card to the beneficiaries. The biometric details of members of each family,
which constitute a unit for the purposes of allotment of stock, are loaded on
the STT at the FPS to which the said family is connected. The beneficiary goes
to the FPS, enters his card number in the machine and the terminal displays his
entitlement and the quota available for the month. The FPS dealer then enters
the required quantity into the machine, the beneficiary places his finger on
the machine authorizing the transaction, which is thereafter is completed. One
crucial feature of the Karnataka Model is that the STT also provides a system of ‘voice over’ i.e.
when the FPS dealer enters the quantity in the machine, a voice message is
automatically generated, stating the quantity thereby making verification
possible even for an illiterate person.
The operational responsibility, including allocation within
State, identification of families below the poverty line, issue of Ration
Cards and supervision of the functioning of FPS, rest with the
State Governments. The stake holders in the distribution chain are.-
§
Department
of Food & Public Distribution ,GOI
§
Food
Corporation of
§
State
Food & Civil Supplies Department(s)
§
State
Civil Supplies Corporation
§
Procurement
and Distribution Agencies (e.g. Markfed, Hafed, Cooperatives etc.)
§
SWC,
CWC & Private Godowns
§
Fair
Price Shop
§
Scheme
Wise Ration Card Holder
(iii) Kerala
The Food and Civil Supplies
Corporation gets the grains from FCI godowns and
whole-sellers do further distribution. As regards computerization initiatives,
a project namely Target Efficient Transparent Rationing and Allocation (TETRA)
in PDS is being implemented. The Tetra application comprises of modules for
Ration Card Management and Food grains allocation & lifting.
RCMS 3.0 Rations Card Management
System is a workflow-based application, which covers various functions such as
Issue of New Ration Cards, Addition of members, Reduction of member, Issue of
Duplicate Ration card, Correction of names of members, Surrender of Ration Card
etc.
Allocation 1.0 covers the allocations,
lifting and distribution of food grains at the wholesale and retail points to
FPS. Together they also cover the FPS registration and licensing.
At present the application has been
pilot tested at select locations only.
(iv) Chhattisgarh
In
Chhattisgarh unified Ration card database has been prepared which is used to
generate computerized FPS Allocation, declaration of stock balance, Web based
Truck Challan etc. Thus information regarding
allocation, stocks, issue and sales for each FPS is now available on the
central server. The State is also using Global positioning System (GPS) for
tracking the movement of trucks carrying food grain.
This web
site based software also provides a method of citizen participation in
monitoring of PDS where citizen can register their mobile no. or e-mail id and
can participate in the monitoring of PDS.A call centre with a toll free number
is also operational for any complaints or suggestions.
(iv)
(v)
In
(vi) Madhya Pradesh
In the State of
(vii) Andhra Pradesh
The State has taken initiatives for
computerization of Ration card household data. The household survey was carried
out for a large number of parameters and ration card parameters were a subset
of that. For creation Ration Card Designated Photography Location (DPL) centers
were setup to collect/ verify the declaration forms, enter the beneficiary data
in the computer and IRIS scanning was done for each member of family. Ration
card household application is a client-server based application. In AP, Every
district is maintaining its own data but no mechanism has been established for
updating the data or verifying it for duplicates/bogus ration cards. The data
at present is not centralized and hence beneficiary verification across
districts is not taking place. Bar-coded coupons were also introduced in the
State. The coupons were given after manual verification of the beneficiary.
This was a difficult process and hence personalized bar-coded coupons were
introduced as pilot for kerosene and Rice. These coupons were delivered at the
door-step of the card holder. However no mechanism has been set up for scanning
of these coupons for verifying the actual distribution.
(viii)
In
(ix) Tamilnadu
Tamilnadu, being a DCP state, the
States Civil Supplies Corporation is responsible for procurement, paddy
milling, storage and distribution of food grains to FPS. The ration card application is a
workflow-based application, which runs at the Taluk
supply office for creations and modification of cards. It is implemented on
pilot basis in north district of Chennai consisting of seven zones. The
printing of the card is done at the Commissioner’s
Office; means issuance of any new ration card is done centrally. The cards
carry a hologram and are laminated.
11. The
Committee also examined other modes of bringing about automation in the
distribution process.
Jharkhand
In the State of
(A) RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID)
(i) Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification
method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called
RFID tags or transponders.
(ii) A RFID tag is an object that
can be incorporated into a product for the purpose of identification and
tracking it using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away
and beyond the line of sight of the reader.
(iii) Most RFID tags consist of
two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing
information, modulating and demodulating
a radio-frequency
(RF) signal, and other specialized functions. The second is an antenna for
receiving and transmitting the signal.There are generally two types of RFID
tags: active RFID tags, which contain a battery, and passive RFID tags, which have no
battery. These tags are being used currently in enterprise supply chain
management to improve the efficiency of inventory tracking and management. The
(iv) The
Committee considered the possibility of tracking PDS stock from the godown to
the FPS, by affixing RFID tags to the bags. Generally, the read range of a tag
is limited to the distance from the reader over which the tag can draw enough
energy from the reader field to power the tag. Tags may be read at longer
ranges than they are designed for by increasing reader power. The limit on read
distance then becomes the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal reflected from
the tag back to the reader.
(v) However, it
appears that it appears that it might not be possible to use these tags for the
purpose of long range, remote tracking of bags. Furthermore, the technology
would be expensive to implement, taking into account that each bag containing
PDS stock being dispatched from each godown in the country would be required to
be tagged.
B. Global Positioning System (GPS)
Global
Positioning System can be used for tracking the movement of trucks carrying
specified food articles (SFAs). For this, routes that have to be followed by
the trucks carrying SFAs have to be prepared and specified. Devices required
for GPS have to be installed on every truck and movement of the truck can then
be monitored. Indian Oil Corporation and State of
The
Committee is of the view that use of RFID or GPS may not be necessary if there
is proper accounting of the stocks by complete automation of the allocation and
distribution systems.
(C) FOOD STAMPS
(i) Various
countries have attempted to provide food security to their citizens through the
use of food stamps. Food stamps are paper vouchers which are given to the
intended beneficiaries and are redeemable in exchange for foodgrains.
In terms of their entitlements beneficiaries are allotted a specified amount of
food stamps each month and food stocks are provided to them against production
of these stamps. This experiment has
been attempted in countries such as
(ii) One of the problems hampering the present
system is that cardholders are not
given their entitled quota, however the records maintained by the fair price
shop are manipulated by the dealer to show that the cardholder has been given
the entire quota while the balance is actually diverted. The Coupon System
might be a possible method to deal with such cases.
(iii) The system
would function in the following manner,
·
The beneficiary goes to the nominated nationalised Bank along with his ration card and pays the
amount equivalent to the amount of coupons he/she wishes to purchase, subject
to the monthly entitlement. In the alternative he can buy coupons commensurate
with his entitlement at one time, which would be valid for one month.
·
The Bank upon receipt of the money from the
beneficiary affixes its stamp to authenticate the coupons and also makes an
entry it the ration card of the cardholder. The money will then be transferred
to the account of the FPS licensee.
·
The beneficiary produces the coupons at the fair
price shop and collects the grains as per the denomination printed on the
coupon.
·
The FPS licensee collects all the coupons and submit
the same to the Circle Office at the end of the month to determine the
succeeding month’s allocation. The money for the stock and the transport would
be directly transferred from his account in the selected nationalized bank
mentioned above to the account of the department through Electronic Clearance
System.
(iv) The Committee is of the view that as it had
suggested in the
(v) The
19. Suggestions
from NIC
During discussions with the Committee,
officials of the NIC expressed the view that the success of the computerisation project is linked to the active
participation by the States, both at development & deployment stage and for
regular updating of information. They suggested the following administrative
set up for planning and implementation of the programme:
Apex
Committee (AC)
Apex Committee will comprise of
Chairman: Secretary of Deptt.
Of Food & Public Distribution(DoFPD)
The AC will formulate the Vision and Strategy, Overall
goals and objectives & Policies to the National level projects
Central
Project Team
Central Project Team will comprise of
Chairman: From DoFPD
Members: From DoFPD and NIC
The responsibilities of CPT will be
·
freeze
guidelines for project implementation modalities
·
Project
Costing
·
Monitoring,
·
Roll
out plan
·
Coordination
with PAC and State Govts.
Process
Advisory Committee
Process Advisory Committee will comprise of Members from:
·
DoFPD
·
FCI
·
NIC
·
DoIT
·
Concerned State Govts.
State
Project Committee (For each state)
Chairman: Principal Secretary (FCS)
·
Policy
formulation
·
Coordination
within state and with Central Project team
·
Formulating
project and monitoring its implementation
·
Advisory
for state tech team
Project
Development and
Implementation
Central
Technical Team
Central Technical Team will comprise of
One Project Head a
senior person with good technical & domain knowledge
Members from Ministry of Food & Supply (F&S)
and / or NIC
The
·
System
Requirement Specifications
·
System Process
Design,
·
Data
Architecture
·
Network
Requirement for the project
·
Core
Application Development
·
Implementation
of the POC (Proof of Concept) with Partner (State/Centre).
·
Project
costing
·
Action plan
·
Coordination
between State project teams
State Level
The
State Project Team and State Technical Team will look after the Development
Phase
State
Technical Team
Members from State department and NIC
State Technical Team will customize / Localize
application based on the core product centrally developed, to meet the State
requirement.
It is suggested that there should be
uniformity in the systems adopted and implemented by the different states. A
meeting of the officers Department of Food and Civil Supplies Government of
India, Food Corporation of
This Committee is however of the view
that if an administrative body as referred to hereinabove is to be set up, it
should not be top heavy and time lines for the implementation of the process of
computerization must be strictly adhered to.
19. Conclusions:
s(i) Monitoring the
functioning of PDS operations through the use of information and communication
technology should be given the highest priority. This is recognized by the PDS
Control Order 2001 in Clause 8 read
with para 6 (6) of the Annexure to the Order.
(ii) A centralized /national committee must be
set up, consisting of experts from the NIC, DOT, USOF, Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy, National Institute for Smart Government to lay down uniform
standards for software components which should be binding on States and should
be compatible with the IISFM being implemented in the FCI. Subject to this
States should be given the freedom to implement the project in the manner they
see fit keeping in mind local conditions.
(iii) The core members of the Central and State
Committees should preferably not be shifted till specified targets are achieved.
(iv) An independent monitoring agency to be
appointed to monitor the implementation of the project in each state and at
national level.
(v) The system must be web-enabled upto the national level so that transaction details are
readily available on the internet as this will make PDS operations transparent.
(vi) Timelines should be fixed for the
implementation of the process of computerization of PDS operations, with the
aid and assistance of the Central and State governments.
(vi)
Measures
to harness alternative/renewable sources of energy such as solar energy must be
implemented.
(vii)
Infrastructure
being established using the Universal Service Obligation Fund and under the State
Wide Area Networks or any other agency (like BSNL) must be made available for
facilitating the computerization of PDS operations.
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