Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Apr 21, 2011, 12.10am IST
NEW DELHI: If global retail giants Marks & Spencer and Walmart could keep tabs on every purchase made in their stores, why could not the Centre and state governments adopt a similar method for the food grain distribution chain to stop pilferage, the Supreme Court asked on Wednesday.
India, it was told, had a fully operational computerised Public Distribution System in Chhattisgarh. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Petitioner NGO 'People's Union for Civil Liberties ( PUCL)' suggested that the Chhattisgarh model could be employed as a starting point to devise a uniform mechanism for the country A Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma agreed and appointed a high-powered committee headed by former Supreme Court judge D P Wadhwa to chalk out the blueprint by July 8 for computerisation of the entire PDS operations in the country to track movement of subsidised food grains from granaries to individual ration card holders.
Ration cards now will be replaced by smart cards, as has been done by Chhattisgarh, the Bench said while appointing director general of National Informatics Centre (NIC) and DG of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as members of the panel.
Additional solicitor general Mohan Parasaran and the Bench agreed that the smart ration cards would be UID compliant and requested the committee to take the Chhattisgarh model as the starting point for devising the blueprint for PDS computerisation.
The court said computerisation was urgently needed to stop large amounts of food grain pilfered from PDS from reaching the market. It requested the Wadhwa committee to give its report to the court by July 8 and posted the matter for further hearing on July 11.
It also said that computerisation of PDS system must have a citizen interface or Jan Bhagidari, telling the public about the list of ration shops and utilisation of subsidised food grain.
"The committee should consider every aspect and prepare a model for the entire country. It should expedite the process and give a report to the court by July 8," it said.
India, it was told, had a fully operational computerised Public Distribution System in Chhattisgarh. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Petitioner NGO 'People's Union for Civil Liberties ( PUCL)' suggested that the Chhattisgarh model could be employed as a starting point to devise a uniform mechanism for the country A Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma agreed and appointed a high-powered committee headed by former Supreme Court judge D P Wadhwa to chalk out the blueprint by July 8 for computerisation of the entire PDS operations in the country to track movement of subsidised food grains from granaries to individual ration card holders.
Ration cards now will be replaced by smart cards, as has been done by Chhattisgarh, the Bench said while appointing director general of National Informatics Centre (NIC) and DG of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as members of the panel.
Additional solicitor general Mohan Parasaran and the Bench agreed that the smart ration cards would be UID compliant and requested the committee to take the Chhattisgarh model as the starting point for devising the blueprint for PDS computerisation.
The court said computerisation was urgently needed to stop large amounts of food grain pilfered from PDS from reaching the market. It requested the Wadhwa committee to give its report to the court by July 8 and posted the matter for further hearing on July 11.
It also said that computerisation of PDS system must have a citizen interface or Jan Bhagidari, telling the public about the list of ration shops and utilisation of subsidised food grain.
"The committee should consider every aspect and prepare a model for the entire country. It should expedite the process and give a report to the court by July 8," it said.