Introduction
The Public Distribution System (PDS) in India has grown considerably over the past decade. Recently, Government has decided to link aadhar with PDS.
Need
- Leakages in PDS with dealer selling the food grains in the external market.
- The dealers give less food grains to the actual beneficiaries and pocket the rest.
- Corruption in PDS has gone up to 90 percent in some states.
Must read : Model
The pioneer to plug this leakage in PDS was Chattisgarh State. The PDS system was made transparent through
- Computerization
- Strict control to check leakages through intermediaries in the state.
This became a successful model and other states followed.
Jean Dreze PDS study
- The study was conducted in nine states of Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh
- The study reveals that PDS integrated with aadhar system is working efficiently
- Nearly 85% of BPL families get their food grains from the PDS on time.
Pitfalls
There are some pitfalls in this approach.
- The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered Aadhar as not mandatory
- Central government is making it mandatory in PDS which is a direct violation of the SC order.
- This adoption of POS and Aadhar link will help eliminate only the bogus cards and quantity frauds.
- The leakages and corruption will not be plugged.
Way Forward
- The success of Direct Benefit Transfer in the case of LPG subsidy has to be extended to the Public Distribution System.
- The food grains will be sold at market prices in PDS shops
- Subsidies will be transferred to the beneficiary bank accounts like the gas subsidy
- Technology based end to end solution in PDS
- Leakages will be arrested to a considerable extent by tracking discrepancies through digitalizing PDS information.
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