GPS on PDS vehicles impresses central official

Union Joint Secretary (Food and PDS) appreciated the efforts of the Civil Supplies department in controlling pilferages in Public Distribution System (PDS) in the State.

     The top official, who was on a one-day visit to Hyderabad on Tuesday, reviewed the functioning of Command Control Centre, which was established in the Civil Supplies Bhavan to track the movement of vehicles that transport PDS rice.

    Officials from the department said Union Joint Secretary  was impressed by the technology and enquired in detail about the Command Centre.

          The Joint Secretary took keen interest on GPS devices installed in all transport vehicles and also on CCTVs. He said he will recommend to other States to adopt the system being followed in Telangana.

     Commissioner of Civil Supplies C.V.Anand said that the Command Centre was established to ensure that every movement of PDS vehicles is brought under surveillance till the stock reaches the actual consumer.

     The Commissioner also briefed the Joint Secretary about the progress achieved in e-PoS devices and assured him that all-out efforts are being made to speed up and complete the process of installing e-PoS devices by this June.

Diners can cheer, state to penalise hotels that fleece with service tax

Two days after the Centre's ruling on stricter guidelines on service charge levied at hotels and restaurants, the Telangana government has decided to implement the orders.

"Due to lesser awareness among consumers they are often fleeced by hotels and restaurants. Many are forced to pay service charge as a tax. Therefore, we will implement the guidelines issued by the Central government and will have stricter rules in place," said CV Anand, ex-officio principal secretary (full additional charge) to consumer affairs, food and civil supplies in Telangana.

Anand further told  that inspections will also be held in hotels. "Paying service charge must be at the consumers' discretion. We will take strict action against hotels and restaurants that fleece consumers by making service charge mandatory," said Anand.

Most customers seemed to be excited about the recent missive from the Central government.

Top cop Anand takes a stroll down memory lane

With only four days to go for the Osmania University Centenary Celebrations to begin, alumnus,C. V.Anand, currently heading the Telangana State Civil Supplies department turns nostalgic while sharing his campus memories.

It was in 1989 when I joined Arts College for my masters in economics. I used to go by my bike Yezdi, park it on the left side of the college building and step inside the classroom in the farthest corner.

I was not interested in student politics and all because I was more engrossed in preparations for Civil Services.Recalling his teachers, Anand said he remembers the names of only two professors – Raghuram and Thippa Reddy while Navneet Rao was the Vice-Chancellors. Jyothi Babu was one of my closest friends. Recollecting the good memories, he says he enjoyed having lunch at the varsity canteen, sitting under the trees with friends, occasionally staying back in the hostel room of one of my friends whenever I got delayed in the library or attending study circle.

After joining IPS, I was away on assignments outside Hyderabad and it was in 2001 I came back to city as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, East Zone and Osmania University was in my zone.Once I went to the campus, stopped near my classroom and also at the trees where I used to sit with friends. It was a nostalgic moment for me. Sometime later, I attended a programme conducted by a student organisation, as a guest.

Around that period, I went to see my Professor Raghuram when I came to know that he was ill. Now he is no more, Anand said. However, I and my wife, who is also the student of OU, made it a point to attend the weddings of the children of our professors. Some of my batchmates are working in different capacities in the city police, he recalls quickly adding more than 400 students from the campus were recruited as Sub-Inspectors of 1991 batch and many of them are still working in city.

Asked about students playing crucial role in the Telangana agitation, Anand said, “OU has always been a center of activism. It is but natural that OU students were drawn towards the Telangana agitation.”Referring to the current scenario of the campus, Anand said, “I feel bad when I read about the happenings on the campus. I am not sure but the standard of education appeared to be not that good.” “I don’t know, but I wonder where this university is heading. It feels bad when I read things happening on the campus these days,” he said.

CIVIL SUPPLIES COMMISSIONER LAUNCHES EPOS DEVICE AT DIVITIPALLI

Civil Supplies Commissioner C V Anand inaugurating an e-PoS FP shop in Divitipalli village in Mahbubnagar district on Friday

Commissioner of Civil Supplies C.V.Anand has informed that Electronic Point Of Sale (EPOS) system is being implemented State-wide in phases to check irregularities/diversions of essential commodities under PDS as per the policy guidelines of Central and State Governments to convert FP Shops as centre points of cashless transactions.

EPOS system will be implemented in all the 15,606 FP shops in the state in phases, i.e., 5,242 FP shops in 10 districts in the first phase, 4,817 FP shops in 11 districts in the second phase and 5,507 FP shops in nine districts in the third phase.

To start with, the said system is being implemented in 40 FP shops on experimental basis in Mahbubnagar district i.e. 6 FP shops in Balanagar mandal, 20 FP shops in Jadcherla mandal & 14 FP Shops in Mahbubnagar mandal.

The Commissioner of Civil Supplies has formally inaugurated the EPOS device in the FP Shop at Divitipalli, Mahbubnagar district, on Friday.

As per the policy guidelines of Central Government to encourage cashless transactions due to cancellation of big currency notes, Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation made major innovative changes in EPOS devices. EPOS devices positioned in FP Shops of Hyderabad district are useful only to release PDS stocks through finger printers.

Now major changes are made in EPOS devices in the backdrop of cashless transactions and added Iris, Scanner, Weighing scales, Swiping Machine, Aadhaar-enabled Payments System, audio voice and also providing receipt of payments of electricity bills, water bills, etc. Software is developed to take rationed stocks through bank account of the cardholders.

In line with the directions of Central government to utilise FP shops for banking transactions also, micro ATMs are also being installed, with the result the FP Shops dealers will act as business correspondent in addition to release of PDS commodities.

Due to corrosion of fingerprints in some cases, some operational problems have arisen in biometric system. To overcome this, now iris and voice over system are being in EPOS devices keeping in view the people living in rural areas.

Oasis Cybernet Private Limited, Chennai, was identified as system integrator through tender system for supply and maintenance of EPOS devices. Commissioner of Civil Supplies informed that it is decided to install EPOS devices in all 15,606 FP shops in the State in 3 phases and complete the entire process by end of June. To start with, EPOS devices will be installed in 40 FP Shops in Mahbubnagar district as an experimental basis and after seeing the performance, the same will the extended to all the remaining districts.

After installation Aadhaar enabled EPOS devices, digital payments will be made in 13,002 rural FP shops and 4,157 urban FP shops. The original RFP was based on Linux system but the same was modified to Android based operating system software.

In addition to EPOS device, Iris scanner, electronic weighing machines and voice player are provided which support Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS) transactions. On these EPOS machines, cashless transactions are also enabled as per the recent directions of the Government of India on demonetisation. EPOS system is in force w.e.f. March 2016 in GHMC limits Commissioner of Civil Supplies also informed that after installation of EPOS devices there is a saving of 75,353 MTs of rice worth Rs 269 crore to the government.

Arrangements in place for paddy procurement

All arrangements have been made to procure paddy at minimum support price in the ongoing Yasangi (rabi) season across Telangana by setting up a total of 3,076 purchase centres keeping in view the massive production of the food crop.

Commissioner of Civil Supplies C.V. Anand reviewed the arrangements for paddy procurement at a meeting held here on Tuesday and it was decided to commence the operations from next week. The department has fixed the target of procurement at 37 lakh tonnes against 8.42 lakh tonnes procured during the last rabi season (2015-16).

Mr. Anand said paddy procurement during the last rabi was done through only 1,288 purchase centres as the production was low due to lack of water in reservoirs and poor groundwater table. “The procurement will be more than four times than the last year and we are expecting market arrivals of 11.35 lakh tonnes in April, 18.92 lakh tonnes in May and 7.57 lakh tonnes in June,” he explained.

Of the 3,076 purchase centres planned for the current rabi, IKP would be handling 1,101, Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) - 1,771 and District Cooperative Marketing Societies (DCMS) and others -204. Instructions were issued to open paddy purchase centres within the reach of the farmers and to plan that no farmer was allowed to wait for a long time for his turn to weigh his produce. Sufficient number of moisture meters, paddy cleaners, winnowing machines, tarpaulins, drinking water, toilets and other basic needs would also be provided. It was also decided that purchase centres should be opened in a radius of 5 km for procurement of 500 to 1,000 tonnes of paddy depending upon the availability of godown space. As unseasonal rains were expected in May and June, the field-level officers were told to utilise schools for storage purpose to avoid damage to the procured paddy, the Commissioner said.

Procurement panel

District-level committees were constituted under the chairmanship of Collectors with representatives from Agriculture, Marketing, Civil Supplies, Transport, DRDA, ITDA, FCI SWC and CWC as members. The committees would supervise procurement operations to ensure MSP to farmers and other related issues. A control room would also be opened to monitor paddy procurement operations, transportation of paddy and to receive complaints related to procurement operations.

Cautioning the field-level officials to be more careful about gunny bags issue, Mr. Anand said it was being expected that 9.40 crore gunny bags would be required for paddy procurement this season and accordingly they were being positioned.