By Express News Service
Published: 18th July 2015 03:44 AM
HYDERABAD: A day after the Cyberabad Police busted a racket pilfering public distribution system (PDS) rice, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed officials to initiate steps to stop pilfering of PDS rice.
Addressing officials of Civil Supplies department at a review meeting, the chief minister said that technology should be used to stop diversion of PDS rice. “There is a nexus between ration shop dealers and traders. A big racket is operating in the state to divert the PDS rice. The officials should introduce technology to control this,” Rao told officials.
Meanwhile, Civil Supplies commissioner Rajat Kumar said the department will use modern technology to plug the loopholes.
Speaking to reporters here Friday, Rajat Kumar said the department will initiate ‘strong technological and administrative steps’ to control the menace of the rice diversion and hoarding of essential commodities.
According to Rajat Kumar, digitisation of beneficiary data has been completed. Around 90.28 lakh ration cards catering to 2.83 crore people have been degitised and posted on public domain. Aadhaar seeding was done for about 98 per cent cards. After Aadhaar seeding, 11.94 lakh ration cards were deactivated till April, 2015.
“All the PDS activities will be computerised by August end. The ration dealers will be asked to make payment through Mee Seva centres,” he said.
Rajat Kumar said CCTV cameras were being fixed at MLS points to ensure full transparency. “In GHMC area, the e-PoS with biometric identification will be available by August end while in the remaining districts it will be in place by December. GPS will be introduced in transport vehicles for vehicle tracking. The GPS will be in place by August end,” Rajat Kumar said.