Move to encourage e-transactions in ration shops

Reforms were being taken up in ration shops to increase the income of dealers and e-POS machines introduced across all shops to encourage cashless transactions, said Civil Supplies department Commissioner, C V Anand here on Friday.

Speaking to ration shop dealers who had threatened to go on strike from August if their demands were not, Anand said the installation of e-POS devices would be completed and ration dealers will get more income as all the fair price shops will be transformed into mini banks.

Asking them to desist from going on strike he said, “if you decide to call for strike, the Corporation will opt for alternative steps accordingly”.

“We have 2.75 crore Aadhaar card details and the department is planning to turn ration shops into mini-super markets,” he said, adding that genuine dealers can make profit through these reforms.

“Once we introduce e-POS in all the districts, Chief Minister will decide on increase of commission to the dealers. Till then you should be patient,” Anand said.

Later, the dealers requested Anand to give a minimum salary of Rs 30,000 and sought measures to remove weight loss in rice bags as they were losing two to three kgs in every bag coming to them.

Anywhere ration receives good response in city

With use of ePOS, Aadhaar beneficiary can draw rations from any FP shop

Ration portability introduced by the Civil Supplies Department in Greater Hyderabad has received good response from the public with over 1.35 lakh transactions since its launch on June 1.

On an average, over 20% of the total transactions are through ration portability, according to the department.

Ration portability option, which enables the consumer to obtain monthly ration from any fair price shop (FPS) across Greater Hyderabad, irrespective of the place of residence, was introduced in all the 1,545 shops in the city on an experimental basis from 1st June.

Use of biometrics

The ration portability was made possible through the introduction of ePOS system in all the FP shops, and use of biometrics and Aadhaar for establishment of the beneficiary’s identity.

Charminar circle with 17,682 has the largest number of transactions through the portability option, followed by Khairatabad at 14,505. The fair price shops in Charminar and Malakpet circles have recorded 25% of their total transactions through portability.

Beneficiaries who have shifted residence, and those who had earlier been put to inconvenience due to the distances they had to travel to reach the designated FPS are the ones to benefit the most from the portability option.

Vacant dealerships

Owing to cases, suspensions, death of dealers, leaves and resignations, a total of 265 shops are vacant in the Greater Hyderabad region.

Transferring the list of beneficiaries of FP shops that have shut down to the dealers in the adjoining areas have created problems for the beneficiaries, who had to wait in long queues. Portability option has addressed this problem too, say Civil Supplies officials.

Weeding out

Ration portability was introduced to checkmate the unscrupulous FPS dealers, said Commissioner Civil Supplies C.V.Anand.

“Through this measure we have aimed to weed out the benami dealers, who run the shop through others, and are not interested in providing service to the consumers. Portability option requires that all the ration shops in the State work at the same time, so only dealers who need the shop for survival will remain in business,” said Mr.Anand.

It has been made mandatory for the dealers to keep the shop open from 8 a.m. to 12 noon and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day.

Additional stock

To enable the dealers to supply efficiently, the department is maintaining 10 to 15 % additional stocks with each shop.

Through online monitoring, the stocks will be replenished as and when required, Mr.Anand explained.

Replication  soon

The measure will be replicated throughout the state, once the ePOS system is introduced and streamlined in all districts, he said.

From July 1, the department is mulling over introducing the system in 2000 more FP shops in Mahabubnagar, Medchal, Ranga Reddy and Vikarabad districts.

All the 17,200 fair price shops across the State are likely to be covered by August, and one or two months later, the portability option will be launched for the whole State, he added.

₹5,529 cr. paid online to 7 lakh farmers

The Civil Supplies Corporation has made online payments to the tune of ₹5,529 crore so far to farmers against procurement of paddy produced by them in the recently-concluded rabi season. The amount has been credited into the account of about 7 lakh farmers from whom the produce was procured.

According to Commissioner of Civil Supplies C.V. Anand, the Civil Supplies Corporation has already procured 36.63 lakh tonnes of paddy through 3,055 procurement centres as against the estimated production over 39 lakh tonnes in the rabi season.

“The government has allotted necessary funds for paddy procurement. Initially, the government has given surety for ₹2,000 crore and for another ₹1,000 crore recently,” he explained. For the first time, farmers were paid through online with the help of Online Procurement Management System (OPMS) software to avoid the involvement of middlemen, Mr. Anand stated. In the last kharif, the corporation had procured 16.52 lakh tonnes of paddy from 3,92,787 farmers through 2,178 purchase centres and ₹2,478 crore was paid to them online. In the last rabi (2015-16) only 8.27 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured from 1,72,450 farmers through 1,282 purchase centres.

Meanwhile, the State Government has issued orders allowing the Civil Supplies Corporation to avail an additional cash credit limit of ₹1,000 crore from any public sector bank to make payments to farmers and that it would stand guarantee for such loan.

Don’t believe in plastic rice rumours: Anand

Commissioner of Civil Supplies C.V. Anand on Wednesday advised citizens not to believe in rumours on plastic rice as tests conducted on samples collected from the complainant in the Corporation laboratory had shown it was not ‘plastic rice’.

Rice samples have been sent to State Food Laboratory for further chemical tests to totally rule it out and in the meantime, enforcement and vigilance officials were put on high alert. Corporation officials have been given guidelines through video on how to recognise plastic rice and notice if it is mixed anywhere and carry out checks when there are doubts.

Rice millers too have been cautioned in this matter. Tests in Civil Supplies laboratory were conducted in the presence of quality control analyzer, general manager and assistant manager (technical)

Now, you can buy ration from any Fair Price Shop

Ration card holders in Greater Hyderabad can take their quota of commodities from any of the fair price shops in the city from Thursday onwards.

Civil supplies commissioner C V Anand said technology has been upgraded in the Fair Price(FP) shops in Greater Hyderabad to provide portability to the card-holders. Earlier, cardholders could buy their quota of ration only from the allotted fair price shop.

“Ration portability is being introduced from Thursday in the FP shops in the Greater Hyderabad limits and would be extended to other parts of the state in a phased manner. This will create competition among ration dealers and, in turn, card-holders will get better services. Ration portability is linked with Aadhaar card of the beneficiary,” civil supplies commissioner C V Anand said.

Ration portability is being introduced in 1545 ration shops across Greater Hyderabad on an experimental basis in the state capital. Of these, due to suspensions, death of dealers, leaves and resignation of dealers, as many as 265 shops are vacant.

Transferring these shops to other dealers in the adjoining areas posed problems to the card-holders due to long queues. Now, portability will help overcome these obstacles. To ensure success of portability, 10 to 15 percent of more stocks is being provided to the ration dealers. The ration card-holders need not change their house numbers or ration shops.

Anand said they are ensuring that along with ration portability, the working timings of all ration shops are rationalised. As of now, it is compulsory for dealers to keep their shops open from 8 am to 12 noon and from 4 pm to 8 pm. All the ration shops should display the photos of the dealer and the two nominees for the benefit of the customer.