Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali visited Tamil Nadu and took stock of the successful implementation of Electronic Public Distribution System (ePDS) in the southern state.The Minister also hold meeting with senior functionaries of Tamil Nadu government regarding implementation of end to end computerization.As a part of study tour to study successful implementation of Electronic Public Distribution System (ePDS) in different parts of country, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali along with senior officers of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs of the State visited various Fair Price shops and Food Godowns in Chenni city and its rural where they get in-depth knowledge about successful implementation of ePDS. The Minister during his field visit interacted with officials and officers associated with Public Distribution System and also received knowledge about the smart functioning of the Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department of Tamil Nadu.
The Minister checked automation of Fair Price Shops in Chenni and also visited hi-tech godowns. He was briefed about the automation system by Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department Tamil Nadu along with other officers during field visit. The Minister informed about the system through power point presentation by Department Officers. The Officers briefed Minister about online transaction by using AADHAR and OTP system, offline transaction through local ePDS database, billing compliance through SMS. Officers also briefed about working of public portal for beneficiaries, G2G service by web portal, Integrations of DPC, FCI, Godowns and FPS, operations and maintenance and accountability system in the state.
Tamil Nadu Government Officers also briefed Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali about software application technology of open source -cloud based, structured database with configurable entitlement engine & SLA Management, Application Software, Multilingual support of software and other serious techniques used to bring transparency in the Department.
The Minister also checked functioning of Point of Sale Machine (PoS) and termed this machine as ‘revolutionary machine’ in Public Distribution System. He said that J&K Government is also going to install these machines in the state so that to bring total transparency in the system. He said that this machine will be big revolutionary step of his Department to make the Department corruption free. He said the government would ensure transparency in the Department and this machine would help to reach the goal in near future. He said state government led by Chief Minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti is committed to bring 100 per cent transparency in the state and his Department is working day and night to realize the dream.“Tamil Nadu government has implemented ePDS in highly efficient manner where the system is benefiting consumers by lessening the chances of pilferages. He said that he also want to stop the practices of pilferages in Jammu and Kashmir and for the same,” he said.
“Our Department is adopting ways and means to make the system fully transparent. He said that the objective of the visit is to get information about ePDS and end to end computerization so that the same is implemented in Jammu & Kashmir in more efficient manner.”The Minister appreciated toll free grievance redrassal mechanism in Tamil Nadu and also lauded them for Escalation Matrix Monitoring & Alert system, Live Chat, Email Services, Knowledge base for stakeholders and SMS service. He said that they would also start SMS notification for consumers in the state in near future. He added that SMS service is playing vital role in making Food Department in Tamil Nadu a transparent department. The Officers of TN and JK Government who accompanied Minister during his visit included Dr K Gopal, Principal Secretary TN Government and Managing Director Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation, S Madumathi, Commissioner Civil Supplies TN, P Raman Saraswati Joint Commissioner TN and Nissar Wani, Special Secretary, FCS&CA, J&K.