Tag: public distribution system

  • Chhattisgarh HC stays procurement of jaggery meant for Bastar tribals

    Express News Service
    RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh High Court has stayed the tender process on a petition alleging extensive irregularities in the supply of jaggery under the public distribution system (PDS) for the poor malnourished population in tribal Bastar.

    A division bench comprising of Chief Justice in-charge Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Parth Prateem Sahu has issued a notice to the Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation to respond after staying the tender process.

    “There are gross irregularities in the tender process which were floated on 10 April this year. The firm that declares supplying of sugar in its affidavit at higher price and didn’t even qualify on various other requisite parameters has been cited to be qualified. This is ridiculous as the firm that actually qualifies has been unlawfully rejected. Such wrongdoing will further incur additional loss of over Rs 17 crore to the state”, said Satish Gupta, the counsel for the petitioner Ambey industries.

    The scheduled date of the next hearing in the case has been fixed on 29 June.

    To counter the malnourishment among the tribal population in the Bastar zone, south Chhattisgarh, the state government has launched the ‘Madhur Gud Yojana’, in which two kg jaggery per family is distributed through the PDS to 6.98 lakh ration card holders every month. Besides jaggery, the Bastar population also gets rice, gram, salt and pulses.

  • PDS shops in Chhattisgarh forced to close down, foodgrain supply to 6.7 million beneficiaries disrupted

    Express News Service
    RAIPUR: Amid the worrying resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Chhattisgarh with locking down of 21 out of the 28 districts, the routine food grain supply to 67.25 lakh families registered as beneficiaries got hampered as the public distribution system (PDS) shops remained closed.

    There are 12350 fair price shops in the urban and rural areas operating under Chhattisgarh’s universal PDS catering to 58 lakh below poverty line (BPL) and over 9 lakh above poverty line (APL) categories. Every resident of the state is entitled to procuring subsidised food grains through the ration cards.

    Officials say that the PDS shops will not be allowed to open till the Covid situation improves in the state.

    “The decision to close down all fair price shops was taken owing to the steep rise in coronavirus infections in the state. However, we will work out an action plan to organise the distribution of ration to the beneficiaries. In case of immediate need of food grains, the beneficiary can call a dedicated control room centre,” said Amarjeet Bhagat, the state food minister.

  • Covid exposed lacunae in implementation of social welfare schemes: Report

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Covid pandemic has exposed the gaps in the implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) and public distribution system (PDS) infrastructure in India, according to a report. 

    There is an immediate need for a people-centric approach when it comes to the implementation of these schemes, the report pointed out.

    The report — Delivery of Social Protection Entitlements in India: Unpacking Exclusion, Grievance Redress, and the Relevance of Citizen-Assistance Mechanisms — was collated by Dvara Research, Gram Vaani, researchers from IIT Delhi, the University of Montreal, and the Tika Vaani project. The project was funded by the Azim Premji University.

    The research methodology included analysis of 1017 voice recordings of citizens speaking about their grievances and deep-dive interviews of over 10 people selected through critical-case sampling from among the total sample size.

    The highest incidence of exclusion in schemes was due to the way they were processed, the analysis showed. Schemes should be made more citizen-centric so that people can access them, the report said.

    When it came to DBT schemes, around 55 per cent of the total DBT-related complaints from March to June faced issues due to Aadhaar linkage, spelling error, blocked accounts which led to unsuccessful crediting of beneficiary accounts, the report said. In the context of MGNREGA, 66 per cent of the complaints to either problem with work allocation or wage payment processing, the analysis showed. 

    “Around 77 per cent of all complaints pertained to people who had received no work. “The scale of the issue has underscored that the efficacy of the scheme is seriously compromised, even while there is substantial demand,” the report said. A significant number of people reported they were not paid their wages in full. 

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    “There is a need to systematically document citizen grievances and the actions taken to address them to help local officials along the welfare delivery chain be better prepared in solving issues for beneficiaries. We believe that the succinct typology of all the exclusionary factors, as detailed in the report, will help policymakers and other researchers at large to better understand citizens’ perspectives,” said Aarushi Gupta, research associate at Dvara Research.

    The analysis of PDS complaints highlighted that many citizens who needed government support were excluded from in-kind transfers under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana either because they did not have a ration card, given the relief package’s eligibility criteria. The report also observed there was discretionary denialand quantity fraud by fair price shop officers, where people were denied their ration or sent away empty-handed or with less ration than the entitled quota with no documented reasons for the shortfall.

    Most of the EPF complaints pertained to problems people faced in withdrawing their PF contributions due to incomplete employee records or inconsistencies in the spelling of names, date of birth, dates of employment, etc. Lack of cooperation and timely assistance by employers was found to be a key reason for these issues, the report said.

    The report recommended the need to ensure access to social entitlements which are impeded by last-mile problems that people are not able to navigate on their own.

    “The government needs to take a more proactive and citizen-friendly approach by setting up sahayata kendras, fostering community-based institutions, and linking with civil society institutions, to facilitate a smoother interface for citizens to be able to utilise valuable safety nets to which they are entitled,” said Aaditeshwar Seth from Gram Vaani.