Reforms in Telangana Civil Supplies Department - August 2016 to April 2018

This is the story of how one person changed the fortunes of an inefficient and corrupt government department - The Civil Supplies Corporation (CSC). Given charge of being Commissioner of Civil Supplies Department of Telangana, after a fine performance as Commissioner of Police, Cyberabad, C.V. Anand, IPS, was offered a post normally given to IAS officers. But the government was keen and felt he was the right person to do the job.

Ration portability proves a huge hit

Ration Portability Scheme, which was introduced by the State Government recently, evoked huge response from the beneficiaries. Under this, beneficiaries can take ration from any ration shop, located anywhere in the state. More than 5.44 lakh transactions were witnessed within 10 days of the launch.

There are 2.75 crore ration beneficiaries in Telangana. From April 1 to 10, out of the total 17,023 ration shops in the state,  portability transactions were done in 13,082 shops and 5,44,378 people had bought ration using this facility.

Hyderabad district recorded highest number of transactions, followed by Medchal, Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad, and Warangal. For providing better and rapid services to Food Security Card holders, the Civil Supplies Department is providing ration commodities from 1st to 15th of every month.

In Hyderabad, as there are large number of card holders, portability transactions are also high. The date of getting ration is extended till 20th of every month.  In other districts, it will be as usual — from 1st to 15th of every month. After Electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) system came into force, about 12 to 15 per cent of the beneficiaries are not taking ration commodities every month.

“Ration portability has received huge response which is beyond our expectations. We are very happy that more than five lakh transactions are done in just 10 days. This policy is very helpful to the people who migrate to urban areas in search of work. The number of transactions in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Medchal etc. is clear evidence of this,” said C.V.Anand, Civil Supplies Commissioner.

‘IT has reduced the scope of corruption to a great extent’

Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, Food and Civil Supplies discusses the positive changes he brought about during his stint.

From bringing in IT interventions in the civil supplies department and plugging leaks in the distribution of fair price commodities to the massive changes in the consumer affairs landscape, Consumer Affairs, Food and Civil Supplies Commissioner C.V. Anand’s initiatives have increased efficiency while saving on cost. And as his stint draws to a close, Mr. Anand, in a free-wheeling interview, talks about good governance, the age of consumer activism and what the government should do to be more consumer-friendly. 

Excerpts:

How has IT helped to plug leaks in the department?

Information Technology has helped reduce the scope of corruption to a great extent. For a long time, officers had been colluding with rice millers and Fair Price Shops owners. For example, there was delay in farmers getting paid for paddy and it even went up to 30 days to 60 days. The Minimum Support Price of around Rs 1,400 was not given fully. And when the cheques came, they had to add ‘weight’ (bribe officials) to get them. In consultation with the Centre for Good Governance, IT initiatives are firmly in place and payments are upfront. Even in remotest areas, payments are getting credited in the farmer’s bank accounts. Rs 11 lakh crore was paid so far, 80% of which was within three days.

How have you tackled the transporter-dealer-miller nexus?

There are 1,400 trucks transporting rice. We installed 1,750 CCTVs in 171 godowns, GPS systems in trucks and geo-fenced routes. Previously, about 20% of rice was not taken by the cardholders. So the equivalent was not unloaded from trucks and sold off later at ports and in other States. The command control centre here and in districts keeps a watch on every vantage point 24x7.

The gunny bags re-use seems to be an issue. What is your take on it?

Instead of the 38% depreciation charges with each use and their eventual auction, the Centre is saying that there will be charges of Rs 6.30 per use. Last rabi season, analysis revealed that the problems persisted for years and it continued this season too. Procured paddy was not being taken away. Then we found out that gunny bags from Kolkata had not arrived. There was immense cost and effort. Now, by engaging road transport, we have reduced the effort as the truck brings bags to the PPC (paddy procurement centres) directly. Per bale (500 bags) cost has been reduced from 1,600 to 1,050.

What are the efforts towards a kerosene-free State?

Approximately 65% of the ration card holders have got LPG connections in the State. For the next financial year, the Centre’s Ujwala scheme will have an allocation of 10 lakh connections for us. We have taken this seriously.

Consumer fora functioning is slow and some posts are still vacant. What should be done to bridge this gap?

It is best to have a separate Consumer Affairs Department. We made the suggestion in one of the meetings with the Centre and it is recorded in the minutes of the meeting. There has been a sea change in consumer affairs and activism over the years.

Real-time tabs on trucks helped in preventing theft of PDS rice

A tech initiative has saved Rs 19,000 crore for civil supplies department in Telangana. A nexus that existed between rice millers, fair price shop dealers and also government staff, to an extent, was busted and pilferage of food grains curtailed.

Civil Supplies Commissioner C.V.Anand monitors godowns and transport vehicles

The way civil supplies department went about busting the racket, and, in the process, shattering a myth that nothing could be done to change to system that allowed for pilferage of rice, is interesting. TOI checked out the mechanism put in place by CV Anand, commissioner of civil supplies and ex-officio principal secretary, civil supplies department. The IPS officer, who had previously serviced as Cyberabad police commissioner, used his exposure to technology to introduce it even in the civil supplies department.

“The revolution that has been brought about to check pilferage of food grains is mainly due to the technology that makes it possible,” Anand said. In the civil supplies bhavan at Somajiguda, a huge screen gives out real-time specific detail about movement of stocks. Every identified route on which the trucks are transporting food grains has been geo-fenced. That is to say if a truck were to move on any other road and even stopped, the buzzer in the civil supplies bhavan will ring, prompting the monitoring personnel to call up the driver.In the earlier system when no tabs were kept on vehicles, it gave enough scope for pilferage of food grains. Similarly, cameras have been fixed at all godowns. Live CCTV footage is monitored so that there no pilferage. Anand also demonstrated the mechanism at fair price shops that prevents any pilferage. A real-time stock availability and sale is monitored. Beneficiaries also get the right quantity as technology connects both the weighing scales and the e-pos machine handled by the FPS dealer.

The e-pos machine gets activated only with the thumb impression of the FPS dealer and the beneficiary. Technology also exposed the fact that rice millers had not returned the rice that had been handed over to them for milling. Another racket of keeping the gunny bags was also busted. “The best thing that has happened is that farmers get their minimum support price within just a couple of days and directly into their bank,” Anand said.

Interview Time With TS Civil Supplies Commissioner CV Anand