Describe PDS system briefly
Answers
Public Distribution System (PDS) is a national food security system established by the Government of India under the Ministry of food Consumer Affairs managed jointly with state governments in India. The primary objective of PDS is to attain national food security.
Before 1992, PDS was a general system of distribution with equal entitlement for all consumers. However, in 1992, Revamped Public Distribution System which was converted to Targeted Public Distribution System and since then PDS distributes subsidized food and non-food items to only specific segments of population, viz:
Below Poverty Line (BPL),
State-BPL,
Antyodaya Anna Yojna,
Annapurna
Above Poverty Line (APL) Consumers.
The National Food Security Act (NFSA), enacted three years ago, with an aim to complete the process of PDS reform and ensure a modicum of food security for everyone. Under the NFSA, the APL category is abolished and eligible households come under two well defined categories:
Priority households, entitled to 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month at nominal prices, and
Antyodaya households (the poorest), entitled to 35 kg per household per month.
The PDS is to cover at least 75 per cent of rural households at the national level,rising to 80-90 per cent in the poorest States.
With a network of more than 400,000 Fair Price Shops (FPS), the Public Distribution System (PDS) in India is perhaps the largest distribution machinery of its type in the world.