Reaching Out

The Public Distribution System (PDS) is a very big scheme of the Chhattisgarh
government. The subsidy bill allotted for this project is Rs 1,200 crore per
annum. A lot of importance is given to this so that the common people can avail
basic foodgrains at a nominal rate from the fair price shops. However, the whole
system has been crippled with corruption, and malpractice prevents the public
from availing the system in a proper manner. This prompted the Chhattisgarh
government to take due action and computerize the entire process in order to
maintain transparency and prices, commence community participation, ensure
better management and efficiency to stop corrupt practices.

How the Project Works

Subsidized ration allotment is a beneficiary oriented scheme where the poor
people get various ration commodities at a subsidized rate. The purpose of the
scheme is lost if the targeted beneficiaries do not get it. Therefore, the whole
purpose of the PDS project was to develop a system whereby the intended
beneficiaries can actually avail the benefits of the scheme. Thus, mere
computerization of the system was not the only objective. To make it possible
required re-engineering of a lot of government processes in a manner that can be
implemented effectively, and the benefits reach targeted beneficiaries.

It was decided that the information would be online and available to everyone
for reference, and any authorized decision making or changes or rectifications
should be made based on this information. The project was thus conceptualized a
year back and immediately the work to develop the required application as well
as to implement it began. The roll-out of the project happened within four
months only. Under the leadership of Alok Shukla, chief electoral officer,
Government of Chhattisgarh (previously secretary, Dept of Food) the entire
project has been developed, implemented and is being maintained by the food
department of the state with help from NIC. As food secretary it is my vision
to computerize the whole process of PDS. I have been able to convert this vision
successfully into a shared vision of all stake holders, says Shukla.

The Chhattisgarh government supplies ration commodities to more than 46 lakh
families through approximately 10,500 fair price shops. Ration commodities are
supplied from 100 warehouses of Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation.
The whole system of Public Distribution System was in a mess in the state.
There was very poor account keeping and inventory management, informes Shukla.
Stocks of ration commodities were never sent on time, neither were any ration
cards mentioned in the database, resulting in large number of fake and bogus
cards. On one hand deserving beneficiaries were not able to get the benefit of
PDS, and on the other hand there was black marketing and leakage of ration
commodities, Shukla adds. Under the project, a central ration cards database
has been made which is hosted on the Internet for everybody to see. Inventory
and accounts of State Civil Supplies Corporation, the process of receiving money
from fair price shops, record of lifting, sales of ration commodities and issue
of ration commodities from warehouses to fair price shops have all been
computerized. The public interface of the project has also been developed,
including a call center for public grievances, and a system of sending event
based SMS to any member of the public who is interested in acting as a watchdog
for PDS.

A Systematic PDS

The outcome of the project has been very effective. With the help of ICT the
Chhattisgarh government has been able to incur better management of the overall
public distribution process. Previously the fair price shops did not receive the
ration commodities on time nor did the beneficiaries. Inventory management was
very difficult. Now that all the information is available online, wastages of
the ration commodities are less, and goods are despatched on time. The
department issues ration commodities to the FPS based on their previous months
sales unlike ad hoc allocations made earlier resulting in a chaos. Now the
entire sales and inventory figures are available for proper distribution and a
lot of ration commodities could be saved stopping leakage.

The PDS project has also brought in a thorough check on corruption.
Previously to get a ration card one had to apply to the concerned authority
following which manual enquiries were done. It was indeed a time consuming and
hazardous affair. Today the food department has a list of eligible families
based on which ration cards are printed and distributed to the citizens through
camps conducted in both rural and urban areas. As the entire system was volatile
earlier and it was very difficult to detect between eligible or non-eligible
families, a huge number of fake or benami ration cards used to get issued.
These were used by the FPS owners to acquire ration commodities in the name of
the bogus cards for sale in open market at higher prices. Once the PDS project
was implemented these fake ration cards were detected, and subsequently the
department could eliminate over 2.5 lakh fake ration cards.

The department has also launched an effective and transparent community
monitoring system. To do that three things were essentially needed. One, we
have set up a citizen portal, and public can access the same to get the
information related to PDS. Second, any person can register online and receive
SMS or email based information on actual movement of ration commodities like
number of the truck and name of its driver, name and location of the fair price
shop and even the despatch time, says Shukla. Till now 1,000 people have
registered through this service to monitor the movement and keep check on the
shops. Apart from that there is a GPRS based software that allows the warehouse
keeper to capture photographs of the truck in case it has downloaded the
nominated commodities somewhere else instead of the warehouse.

ITs Happening

ICT not only helps to reduce costs, save time and provide convenient access to
services, but also ensures good governance. As Shukla pointed out, unless any
e-governance project is developed, implemented and maintained to offer
unhindered citizen-centric services, which is the real objective, the mission
remains incomplete. The Chhattisgarh PDS project is one such lively example that
can be an eye-opener for other states to develop and implement more such project
and lead India toward a better tomorrow.

Piyali Guha

piyalig@cybermedia.co.in