Ministry of food signs pact with UN food body to computerise public distribution records.

The department of food and public distribution, government of India and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today signed a memorandum of understanding for scaling up computerisation of the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) within the country.

Computerisation of TPDS will enable timely allocation of foodgrains, help record transactions at the fair price shops, track foodgrains and help plug leakages once computerised records start storing biometric identification details of the intended beneficiaries.

A government press release said this has brought about a perceptible change in targeting of public distribution, and helped eliminate over 2.48 crore bogus or  ineligible ration cards.

"The WFP programme will assist the selected states to expedite their TPDS computerisation programmes and will complement the ongoing efforts being made for modernisation of TPDS by the government of India and state governments", it said.

The  memorandum of understanding provides for development and implementation of additional TPDS pilot projects based on the WFP model in Rayagada district of Odisha where in partnership with the WFP, the ste government is implementing a pilot project to strengthen the TPDS through the use of new ration cards against biometric validation or smart cards with point-of-sale devices in fair price shops, 'deduplication' of ineligible cards, etc, the release said.
 
A project covering Bhubaneswar, Odisha is under preparation by WFP and additional pilot projects would be implemented in consultation with the States, Central Government and WFP. The selection of States under the MoU would include those which have not fully implemented computerization of TPDS.

Under the MoU, the department of food and public distribution will facilitate the WFP  TPDS computerisation programme. It will also provide the necessary information and advise on the programme as well as the selection of states for implementation.