J&K government to invest Rs 74 crore to modernise PDS, control pilferage

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir government is working on a multi-pronged modernisation strategy, including an investment of Rs 74 crore and installation of GPS trackers in vehicles carrying food grains, to "ensure transparency and accountability" in the Public Distribution System ( PDS) and control pilferage.

"The government will spend Rs 74 crore on the modernisation of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) Department to ensure transparency and accountability in the public delivery system," CA&PD Minister Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali said.

The Minister said in the Legislative Assembly yesterday that the BJP-PDP coalition government is working on improving PDS and "modernisation is a vital step in this direction".

He said the department would install GPS trackers in vehicles carrying food grains.

"We have observed that large-scale pilferage takes place in food grains that come to the state... To check this, we will install GPS trackers on all such vehicles," he said.

Under the modernisation programme, he said "end-to-end computerisation of public distribution system, digitalisation of data, computerisation of supply demand and management, setting up of transparency portal" is being undertaken.

He said the government also intends to introduce smart card service for consumers, electronic weighing machines and electronic transfer of money in the accounts of dealers to improve the system.

"I can assure the House that from April 1 this year, all the stores will have modern electronic weighing scales and we will get rid of the traditional weighing balances," he said.

To overcome the shortage of ration, he said the government is making efforts to provide ration to the consumers as per the 2011 Census, and the Chief Minister has already taken up the issue with the Centre.

At present, ration is provided to the consumers as per the 2001 Census, which is not adequate, the minister said.