Raipur, June 21 (IANS) Chhattisgarh will install GPS devices to track the movement of vehicles carrying subsidised rice for the poor in efforts to ensure effective implementation of the Rs.1,000 crore annual food security scheme, an official said Monday.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) devices will be installed in about 600 vehicles that supply subsidised rice for 3.7 million families through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
The state government provides 35 kg rice a month at Rs.2 and Re.1 a kg under the Chief Minister’s Food Security Scheme. The Re.1 a kg scheme is available only to 700,000 families under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana that covers the poorest of poor families.
The Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation has issued a tender inviting companies to install, maintain and operate the GPS devices and integrate them with the existing software for tracking of PDS vehicles in all the 18 districts.
‘The whole exercise to adopt technology is aimed at having a monitoring system for the state’s food scheme that covers over 60 percent of the state’s 20.08 million population,’ a senior food department official told IANS.
The GPS devices will give complete information on where and for how long the vehicles carrying rice halted after loading at the warehouses and before unloading the rice at PDS shops.
