Discuss about TPDS to an economy in detail
Answers
75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population in India receiving highly subsidized foodgrains
Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and the State/Union Territory (UT) Governments. Central Government is responsible for procurement, allocation and transportation of foodgrains upto the designated depots of the Food Corporation of India. The operational responsibilities for allocation and distribution of foodgrains within the States/UTs, identification of eligible beneficiaries, issuance of ration cards to them and supervision over and monitoring of functioning of Fair Price Shops (FPSs) rest with the concerned State/UT Governments.
The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) has been notified which provides for all India coverage of upto 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population of the country for receiving highly subsidized foodgrains. Corresponding to above coverage, State/UT-wise coverage for receiving highly subsidized foodgrains was determined by the then Planning Commission. Total 81,34,91,135 number of beneficiaries under NFSA/ Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) are to be identified by respective State/UT Governments and State/UT-wise number of beneficiaries are fixed.
TDPS (Control) Order, 2015 and PDS (Control) Order, 2001, stipulate that State/UT Governments are required to review the lists of beneficiaries every year for the purpose of deletion of ineligible families and inclusion of eligible families. State/UT Governments have been requested from time to time to carry out drives for reviewing the list of beneficiaries under TPDS. The exercise of deletion of bogus/ineligible cards and inclusion of eligible families is a continuous process and State/UT Governments are to periodically carry out the same.
As per the information received from State/UT Governments, as a result of the continuous exercise of reviewing the list of Ration Cards, a total of 2.33 crores ration cards have been deleted during the period 2013 to 2016[upto 15-11-2016].
As and when complaints are received by the Government from individuals and organizations as well as through press reports, these are referred to the State/UT Governments for inquiry and appropriate action.
To prevent the violation of provisions of TPDS [Control] Order 2015 and NFSA 2013, the Department of Food & Public Distribution is implementing a Plan Scheme on ‘End-to-end Computerisation of TPDS Operations’ under 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) on cost sharing basis with the States/UTs. The Scheme comprises of activities namely, digitization of ration cards/beneficiary and other databases, computerisation of supply-chain management, setting up of transparency portals and grievance redressal mechanisms and installation of ePoS devices at Fair Price Shops and issuance of foodgrains through biometric authentication. Besides above, all States/UTs have been also requested to seed the Aadhaar numbers in Ration Card database. The scheme will enable removal of bogus/ineligible ration cards and better targeting of food subsidy, facilitate availability of foodgrains to intended beneficiaries at Fair Price Shops (FPS), check leakages and diversions etc. As on date 24.01.2017, 100% digitization of ration cards and 72.97% seeding of Aadhaar has been achieved and 1.78 lakh ePOS are currently operating at Fair Price Shops.
source-PIB