SMSes to bring transparency in PDS

A special software that will help generate all the data of these SMSes has also been readied by a Pune-based private company and is awaiting approval. With 8.20 lakh beneficiaries,the district administration will be able to bring about better transparency through this system,said Kulkarni.

All numbers of the vigilance committee members of the villages have been collected. To start with fifty villages in each taluka have been picked up and this will be replicated in the entire district,said Kulkarni. With the move aimed at preventing black-marketing of foodgrains and kerosene by PDS shopowners,the system will help the villagers collect the grocery from the fair price shops directly.

Kulkarni said,a GPS and the SMS system will help the officials know if there are any loopholes in the system.

Kisan Wankhede,Shirur taluka,member,gram panchayat,said,if the villagers are briefed about the stock in the fair price shops it would become mandatory for the dealers to issue the items. “The shop owners have highhanded behaviour,but now the villagers will be aware of the stock situation as well as time of dispatch and delivery,it would be easy for us,” he said.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister,Anil Deshmukh,in a meeting convened in the city,had stressed on better transparency in the system. The minister had announced the entire system will be computerised with a GPS to monitor kerosene tankers,group SMS system will be implemented to provide foodgrains and home delivery scheme for ration-card holders would be put in place. He said the government will monitor these schemes.