The Food and Civil Supplies Department of Kerala has deployed electronic point of sale (ePoS) machines in all the 14,374 ration shops in the state.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan declared the complete digitisation of the state’s ration distribution / supply chain, in compliance with the National Food Security Act (NFSA) at a function in Kannur on Friday.
The Department of Civil Supplies completed the task of installation of ePoS machines across all retail ration outlets after connecting the 3.41 crore ration beneficiaries in the state with the Ration Card Management System utilising the Aadhaar database.
The department gave training to all 14,374 ration dealers and their staff in managing the sales through ePoS machines on a single day at 348 centres in the state.
All 1,500 Civil Supplies Department staff also underwent training in the ration card management system.
The Civil Supplies Department already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences for conducting social auditing of the system to ensure that the ration distribution system is smooth.
The government will distribute new ration cards from June 1 to some 75,000 families who are currently not registered with any of the ration cards.
Once this process was completed, all ration card holders in the State would be linked to the ration card management system, ensuring total monitoring of the ration distribution system in the State, the Minister said.
The Kerala government is contemplating GPS tracking of vehicles transporting foodgrain in the distribution chain as well as installation of surveillance systems in all distribution centres as part of the PDS renovation.
Pinarayi Vijayan earlier said the government will introduce biometric attendance system in government offices by October.
