1. PLUGGING THE LEAKS
DONE BY
KATHIRAVAN.S
KALIRAJ.M
THANGALOGESH.M
MANOJ ARAVIND.C
SIVA SHANKARA NARAYANAN.S
Improving reach and efficiency of public distribution system
Dr.mahalingam college of engineering and technology,
Pollachi,Tamilnadu
Electronic system for Public distribution system

2. Indian government spends around 750 million rupees every year for public
distribution system still India’s global hunger index is in alarming status
• Public distribution system means providing necessary food items to people
• The food items are distributed through fair price shops(FPS) which runs under the
Control of state governments
• There are around 5,00,000 fair price shops in India and more than 160 million
Families are benefited from these shops as per 2002 status
• Central government spends around 5% of its expenditure on food subsidy alone
apart from these state governments are also spending for food subsidy, transportation
of food items and running of these shops
• Based on the financial background of people we can divide them in three ways
APL-Above poverty line
BPL-Below poverty line
AAY-Antodaya anna yojana (poorest of poor)
• Based on these three categories the quantity and rate of food items given to the
People varies
• Food items given under this scheme are wheat/rice (depending on the state),
Sugar, kerosene
• Apart from these food items the individual state governments are also giving
Some additional items based on the requirement of the local people

3. Working of current public distribution system
Procurement
• Central government announces minimum support prices (MSP) for the food crops
based on the recommendations of the commission of agricultural crops and
prices(CACP) with profitable margins for the farmers
• Farmers can sell their products to various mandeys arranged for the procurement by
the government at Minimum support price after passing the quality test
Storage
• Food items procured are stored in the government owned ware houses with proper
facilities in a controlled environment without wasting them
Distribution
• Central government allocates food items to each state based on the requirements and
availability ,the remaining amount is arranged by the state government itself through a
separate procurement
• From ware houses it is transported to the FPS and then distributed to the public

4. Problems associated with current public distribution system
• Food items are not properly reaching the targeted poor people
• Grains are sold in black markets
• Good quality of grains are sold illegally and are replaced by poor quality grains
• Quality of food particles is reduced due to improper storage facilities available at the
storage yard and fair price shops (FPS)
• Shopkeeper at the fair price shops reduces the quantity by making some alterations
in the weighing machine
• Some People those who are having ration cards but don’t like to buy the goods at the
Fair price shops, Give their ration cards to others for some profits that leads to second
level of trading which is illegal
• The exact quantity of food grains remains at a fair price shops after distribution is not
known to the government
• Shopkeepers at the Fair price shops are not working properly for the time allocated by
the government
• Government spends 3.65 rupees to give 1 rupee for the poor
• 57% of goods are not reaching the targeted people
• India ranks 65th in the Global hunger Index

5. Outlay of our new public distribution system
Central government already have the all the important details
like finger print, address of each individual citizen through
AADHAR card
• State government collects all the data of the citizens of the
respective states from AADHAR card and integrated with
each ration card number
• The computers of all the Fair price shops are verified
through a central hub
• After receiving food items from the central government
rice/wheat are packed in terms of 5kg,10kg
• Each fair price shops are provided with a computer(with
billing) finger print reader
Central
government
State
government
Fair price
shops

6. Overview:
Transaction is done by using fingerprints of the customers and billing is
done using computers which are connected to central server through internet
connection so that the record of products being sold are kept in track.
Procedure employed:
1.Initially the fingerprints of all the customers and of individual shop is
collected and stored in a computer with the help of AADHAR card
2.This computer is present at the fair price shop and is used for trading.
3.When a customer comes to the shop,his fingerprint is obtained in a
fingerprint reader and customer’s account is opened in the system.
4.This would be called as the TRANSACTION WINDOW and this will
open only when the fingerprint matches with the stored one.
5.Selling can be done only when this window opens.
6.The seller enters what the buyer wishes to buy and the bill for the
purchase is printed and the goods which is being sold is also recorded and sent
to the central server.
7.when the purchase ends then the transaction window closes
ELECTRONIC SYSTEM

7. Packaging system
• Food grains (rice/wheat only) are packed in the order of 5kg,10kg using cloth
type material because plastic is environmentally not good
• For items which are distributed less than 5kgs like sugar are packed in a
single package of 2kgs or based on the allotment of the respective states
• Packaging is done in such a way that it is easy to tear, without damaging the
packet, making it reusable
• Since these packages are little costly that we cannot manufacture it newly all
the time, we ask people to submit the empty packages in the next time of
their purchasing
• We have already stored the quantity of grains bought by the people last time,
so we know how many empty packages they should return, if the misses
them we impose a fine amount equal to the manufacturing cost of that
package ,so that we can reduce the losses
• For oil substances like kerosene we are going to give a vessel marked along
with quantity specifications on it such as 1liters,2L etc; for a single time
• People should bring them every time of purchasing for the next time onwards

8. Benefits of our new changes in PDS
• The quantity of food grains sold are registered in the computer, so we can have the
quantity of remaining goods available, it reduces block market trading.
• Without the finger print of the respective card holder transactions could not be done
because of this illegal usage of ration cards will be eliminated.
• Since food grains are packed it is not possible to replace the food grains by a poor
quality food grains.
• The food grains are packed exactly the same amount of quantity(5kg,10kg) it reduces
the shop keeper intervention of changing the quantity during weighing operations.
• Kerosene are measured and poured on the vessel (given by the govt).Which is marked
with quantities,So it reduces the reduction of quality during distribution
• Because of packaging the quality of food grains is preserved.
• For packaging we are using cloth type material so the plastic usage is eliminated and
also we are using the same package repeatedly which reduces the cost of system.
• Shopkeeper at fair price shop will not be able to leave the shop before the working
time
• Since only card holders can able to buy the goods, high income people find difficult to
stay in line for a long time and they won’t buy ,this decreases the amount spend by the
government

9. Cost Estimation
Device Name Quantity Price
Computer 1 Rs 10 000
Fingerprint reader 1 Rs 2000
Printer(small size) 1 Rs 4000
Total Rs 16000
Total number of shops in India = 500000
Total investment = Rs 800 crores
For a single fair price shop
• The prices are taken into account based on the benefit due to wholesale purchase
• Even though investment cost is high we can reduce the illegal activities to a larger extend
and can able to save huge amount of money in future
• It is a single time investment only

10. AWARENESS
• The main reason for the public distribution to be ineffective is lack of awareness
among people.
• Awareness programs must organized in villages and towns.
• Colleges and schools must have consumer clubs and they should impart
awareness to the local people
• Schools should impart sound knowledge to students about consumer rights and
the loss for nation due to the malpractices done by the officials and consumers,
because they are going to be the future customers and officials of nation
• Patriotism must be imparted to the students from childhood onwards so that no
one should involve in any kind of illegal activities in future
• Advertisements should be given on all types of media so as to spread awareness
as much as possible
• Contact details of higher officials should be provided to the consumers to
complain about any kind of malpractices or inconvenience given to the
consumers
If any person is found guilty of involving in any kind of illegal
activities sudden dismiss and punishment should be given to them, so as to
eliminate malpractices completely

11. REFERENCES
Planning Commission of India
Justice Wadhwa Committee Report
Food corporation of India
Public Distribution System of India
World Health organisation
Wikipedia