Soon,Press button,get grain from automated machine at ration shops

What the proposal means is simple: once the machines are ready,ration card-holders will simply have to go to a PDS outlet and ask the shopkeeper for a certain amount of,say,rice. The shopkeeper will press a button and rice will come out of the dispensing machine. Officials say the move will cut out chances of tampering with weight.

But that is only for stage one. At a later stage,the government is looking at fully automated machines that will make the process of getting rations simpler still: swipe in a bar-coded ration card,and get your foodgrain.

Delhi has nearly 23 lakh ration card holders,of which 14 lakh are below poverty line and Antodaya card owners. As many as two lakh ration cards were found fake in a verification exercise last year,leading to action against 63 PDS outlets. Six FIRs were also registered.

The Wadhwa Committee set up to look into the functioning of PDS had estimated in its report that 30 to 40 per cent of PDS supplies are siphoned off. A recent survey reveals the PDS is getting a little defunct — figures say only 12.79 per cent of the total amount of wheat bought by Delhiites is from ration shops.

“We have asked Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) to design a prototype of an automated public distribution machine to prevent corrupt practices,like tampering with the weighing machines,” Delhi’s Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta said.

The DCE’s electrical engineering department is designing the machine. “We have planned the machine in three stages,” the institute’s director,P B Sharma,said. “In stage one,we will work on the accuracy of weight; the second stage will focus on plugging adulteration. We will also work on synchronising the machine with a bar-coded ration card in the final stage.”

The first prototype of the machine is expected to be ready within two months.

The idea is to keep stock supplied from government godowns sealed and then dispense it with these machines. The machines will be equipped with a micro-processor to regulate its functions. The Delhi College of Engineering through its fully-automated model is hoping to make the shop owner irrelevant. “At a later stage,the machines will be able to read a bar-coded ration card and dispense grains according to the customer’s eligibility,” Sharma said.

A separate automated dispensing machine for kerosene is also being designed. “It will be more on the lines of milk dispensing machines at Mother Diary outlets,” Sharma said.  

Delhi has 2,546 PDS outlets and,on an average,each shop handles nearly 1,000 ration cards. The families below poverty line are entitled to 25 kg wheat and 10 kg rice per month. Wheat is available for Rs 4.65 per kg and rice for Rs 6.15 a kg. Sugar is distributed only to customers below the poverty line.