India 2018

274 India 2018
The Act also contains provisions for setting up of grievance redressal
mechanism at the district and state levels. Separate provisions have also
been made for ensuring transparency and accountability.
NFSA is now being implemented in all the states/UTs covering about
80.55 crore beneficiaries, against intended coverage of 81.34 crore persons. In
Chandigarh, Puducherry and urban areas of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the
Act is being implemented in the cash transfer mode under which food
subsidy is being transferred into the bank accounts of beneficiaries who then
have a choice to buy foodgrains from open market.
End-to-End Computerisation
Department of Food and Public Distribution is implementing a Plan Scheme
on 'End-to-End Computerisation' of TPDS Operations on cost sharing basis
with states/UTs with funding requirement of ` 884.07 crore, out of which
Government of India's share is ` 489.37 crore and that of states/UTs is
` 394.70 crore. It has become more important after coming into force of the
National Food Security Act, under which prices of foodgrains to be distributed
through the TPDS are highly subsidised. The scheme has been extended for
a period of one year upto 2018. Its key activities include : (a) digitization of
beneficiary database to enable correct identification of beneficiaries; removal
of bogus cards and better targeting of food subsidies; (b) online allocation of
foodgrains to bring transparency in allocation of foodgrains, upto the fair
price shops level; and (c) grievance redressal mechanism and transparency
portal to introduce transparency and public accountability in the
implementation of TPDS through transparency portals, online grievance
registration and toll free helpline numbers.
All states/UTs have been requested to seed Aadhaar numbers in ration
cards database. Further, action has also been initiated for implementation of
FPS automation which involves, installation of Point of Sale (PoS) devices at
FPS for authentication of beneficiaries, recording of sales to beneficiaries at
the FPS; and uploading of transaction data in central server.
Targeted Public Distribution System
In order to maintain supplies and securing availability and distribution of
essential commodities, in consonance with the National Food Security Act,
2013 (NFSA), the Department notified the Targeted Public Distribution
System (Control) Order, 2015.
Clause 9(1) of the TPDS (C) Order, 2015 empowers the state governments
to issue an order under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 for
regulating the sale and distribution of the essential commodities. However,
such order issued by the state government shall not be inconsistent with the
TPDS (C) Order, 2015.