Coimbatore: The civil supplies department resumed ration distrubution as per the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme at all the PDS shops in the district on Tuesday, almost one-and-a-half month after the ration distribution based on the scheme was stopped due to technical issues. From now on, ration products will be handed over to family members whose names were mentioned in the ration card after verifying their fingerprints.
The scheme was implemented on a pilot basis at 135 ration shops in the south taluk of Coimbatore from October 1. Two weeks later, TNPDS had decided to extend it to all the 1,419 ration shops in the district. But within a few days, they had to put the plan on hold as it took more time to deliver products than old method due to slow server.
“About two weeks ago, the department had implemented the scheme in 16 districts on trial basis after upgrading the software and improving the performance of the server. As it was found to be successful, the scheme was resumed in seven more districts including Coimbatore on Tuesday. It would be implemented in the remaining districts within two days on phased manner,” said an official from the office of district supply officer (DSO).
The distribution was free of glitches and there were no complaints from the public on Tuesday, the official said. The time taken for billing per person is less than three minutes in most of the shops in the city limits and we have also sought report from the shops in the rural areas, the official added.
“When the scheme was first implemented, it took at least 30 minutes to deliver products to a person. But now, it has come down significantly,” said a salesperson at a ration shop in Singanallur.
Under the scheme, card holders could buy their monthly entitlement of ration products from any electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) enabled ration shops in the country and the products could be bought only by a person whose name was included in the card, the official said.
“The scheme would help us to prevent smuggling. The quantity of products sold in the district per month is expected to come down by 40%,” the official added
Meanwhile, the Centre has been providing 5kg of channa to 4.16 lakhs of Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and priority household (PHH) ration card holders through TNPDS in the district. For the non-priority household ration card holders, the state government is providing a kilogram of toor dal for December for free of cost as Covid-19 assistance.