Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Sept 30: To bring transparency in the system of distribution of PDS items the Civil Supplies Department is shifting from conventional manual-PDS to ePDS.
The Civil Supplies Department with their system integrator, HCL Infotech Limited has converted around 59000 Ration Cards from conventional to Smart Cards.
“Now the beneficiaries can start using their Smarts Cards from tomorrow in place of Manual Ration Cards, that is fully digitalized. As a pilot project this e-PDS system will first be operational in the South Andaman District where there is 275 numbers of Food Price Sellers,” said Mr. Sandeep Jacques, Secretary of Civil Supplies while addressing a Press Conference today.
He said that the e-PDS system will also apply further very soon in the North & Middle Andaman where there is around 142 and 24 FPS at Little Andaman and 53 FPS at Nicobar District.
Addressing a press conference, the Deputy Director, Civil Supplies Department, Mr Sanjay Balan said that objective to bring e-PDS is to bring transparency and efficiency in the Public Distribution System so that the maladies involved in the process could be eliminated to make the system more robust and citizen friendly.
The PDS beneficiaries will be issued with Smart Ration Cards in place of paper type Ration Cards. All the Ration Card holders of South Andaman District except Little Andaman have been advised to collect their Smart Ration Cards from their respective FPS on surrender of existing paper type cards.
The card holders have also been advised not to share their Smart Ration Card PIN with anyone including the FPS owners.
The PIN number shall also be sent through the Registered Phone Number of the beneficiary with the Department.
In case of non-delivery of PIN Number by 01/10/2016 please contact helpline number 246287.
From Oct 1, 2016, PDS Commodities will be issued through Smart Ration Cards only and as such, beneficiaries will be required to carry their Smart Cards to the respective FPS to facilitate e-transaction.
The entitled scale of food grains and the price of PDS commodities will remain the same which will also be displayed in the Point of Sale device apart from generation of transaction receipt for the convenience of the beneficiary.
Later addressing the Press conference, the Project Director, HCL Infotech Limited, Mr Lalit Joshi said that the e-PDS system covers all the major components of Public Distribution System is to provide Ration Card related Services, Issue of PDS commodities (FPS Automation), Godown Management, Web based grievance redressal system, Computerization of Legal Metrology, Departmental Portal.
