Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will flag off a fleet of 9,260 ‘mobile delivery’ vehicles at Benz Circle here on Thursday that will used for the new Public Distribution System (PDS) programme.
The government is spending ₹830 crore for the new scheme.
These vehicles will be used to deliver essential commodities to the PDS beneficiaries at their doorstep from February 1, Minister for Civil Supplies Kodali Venkateswara Rao (Nani) has said.
The Minister visited Benz Circle on Wednesday to oversee the arrangements.
He reviewed the arrangements at the dais and the order of placing vehicles and gave a few suggestions to the officials.
The vehicles to be flagged off will be used in Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts.
‘Jagan’s promise’
The Minister said that Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised daily wage coolies, the physically handicapped and the elderly people who had complained of problems in collecting their groceries from the PDS shops, that he would address these issues effectively during his padayatra.
“True to his word, from February 1, the mobile delivery vehicles will supply essential commodities to the beneficiaries at their doorstep,” the Minister said.
Referring to the move to supply quality rice through the fair price shops, the Minister said, as a pilot project, it was implemented in Srikakulam district, and it would soon be replicated across the State.
Mr. Venkateswara Rao said these mobile vehicles, equipped with electronic weighing machines, EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) machines, first-aid kits, cash boxes and seating arrangement, would work 18 days in a month, supplying essential commodities to not less than 90 beneficiaries in a day. The new system would also promote transparency, he added.
Self-employment
The mobile delivery vehicles purchased at a cost of ₹539 crore would also become a source of self-employment for youth identified by the SC, ST, BC and minority corporations. The government would hand over these vehicles to the unemployed youth on 60% subsidy. The cost of each vehicle was ₹5,81,000, but the respective corporations would give them to the beneficiaries with a subsidy of ₹3,48,600, the Minister said.
Krishna District Collector A. Md. Imtiaz, Chief Minister’s Programme Coordinator T. Raghuram, Chairman of the Brahmin Welfare Corporation Malladi Vishnu, Gannavaram MLA V. Vamsi, Joint Collector K. Madhavi Latha, DCPs Vishnuwardhan Raju and Vikrant Patil, in-charge Sub-Collector K. Rajyalakshmi, and YSRCP leader Devineni Avinash were present.