As the old saying goes, if there is a will, there is a way. And the Tamil Nadu government has shown that it has the much needed political will to open more than one ways to make sure that the food distributed through the Public Distribution System (PDS) reaches the 2 crore odd homes of the poor and the needy safe thanks to the effective use of a complex web of simple, but modern technology, that leaves very little room for error.
From simple route charts through GPS-based vehicle tracking to on-line monitoring of warehouses and a stock monitoring method based on SMS, the state government has pressed into services all the possible technology which comes in handy to ensure that the highly subsidised essential commodities distributed through the 31,400 odd distribution outlets spread over 32 districts reach the target households in time.
According to sources, the state civil supplies department has woven the technological web around the PDS system from the source of origin to the end-user with different layers of checks and balances with available technology. To begin with, the exercise starts from the source of origin? warehouses?en-route to the distribution outlet, a route prone to divert the food grain to elsewhere. The system used here was a simple route chart method which shows the way the vehicle ought to take in its onward journey with additional data on the goods it carry and its destination shop. If the truck stray away from the route, any elected representative of the people has the right to stop it on the tracks and inform the authorities concerned. The revenue squad and food cell flying squads would be quick to take their calls.
To make this fool proof, the state government has also introduced a GPS-based vehicle tracking system that would relay real time data on the position of a given vehicle carrying the PDS articles to various control rooms set up by the government at different districts. Though this has been introduced on a pilot basis in select districts, the service would be soon rolled out into all districts, a senior official in the ministry of food, consumer affairs and public distribution, Tamil Nadu Government told FE.
According to him, the department operates a set of 70-GPS fitted trucks each in the pilot districts of Thiruvallur and Krishnagiri respectively to ferry PDS commodities between the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) godowns and State government-owned commodity godowns. Out of the 70 trucks, 35 haul the commodities from FCI godowns to the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) godowns and 35 lorries take the stocks from TNCSC godowns to the end-user shops in the respective districts. Of the total 140 trucks fitted with the GPS in the two pilot districts, Bangalore-based EI Labs provide both hardware and software on a monthly rental basis for Rs 720 a truck, he added.
He said GPS fitted trucks are not only the option the department is looking at in reforming the PDS logistics. ??Though this may be a fool-proof system, we are studying various other options as well. We are looking at optimum cost technology in this PDS delivery streamlining exercise??, he added.
CN Maheswaran, Joint Commissioner, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Tamil Nadu Government said: ??The department is putting up several technology-based monitoring mechanisms to check alleged instances of diversions. We are building a robust back-end in the monitoring exercise. We are also planning a centralised system of monitoring. We are studying the technology and cost factors in universaling the process?, he said.
The government has also introduced a SMS-based alert to monitor the stock situation in the fair price shops on a real time basis with the help of national telecom carrier BSNL. This provides spot information on the demand-supply situation across the fair price shops in all districts, helping the authorities concerned to manage the supply chain effectively.
To top it all, the government has recently introduced a new billing system in which hand held GPRS-based machines are used to ensure fair play on the part of the shop owners.
?The planning Commission has recently announced several methods to ensure fairness in the entire PDS to make it more effective to ensure food security. This include the use of biometric technology to weed out fake beneficiaries, GPS to track vehicles, social audit to prevent diversion of PDS grains and SMS alerts about stock position to revamp PDS system. Tamil Nadu had already gone a long way in introducing most of these suggestions, though in some cases on a pilot basis. Planning Commission and other states may learn a lot by studying the functioning of PDS in Tamil Nadu?, another official said.