Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali has issued instructions for connecting all Tehsil Supply Offices of the Department and Food Godowns with 24 hours Internet services by August 15, 2016 so as to pave way for online supply chain management.The Minister chaired meeting on progress made in the implementation of e-PDS in CAPD Department in which Secretary, Information Technology Department, Hilal Ahmad Parray, Director CAPD Kashmir Peerzada Mushtaq Shah, and other officers were also present.Assuring to make CAPD Department fully computerized, Minister said that he wants to change the perception about this department among public and make it one of the best digitized and 100 percent corruption free department. He said the Department has been facing various challenges such as leakages, fake/bogus ration cards, lack of transparency and weak grievance redressal mechanism and to check embezzlements vis-à-vis the pilferage of foodgrains to a greater extent, they started e-PDS project to fully computerize the Department and bring total transparency in it. He said the Scheme on “End to End Computerization of TPDS Operations” was launched by Govt. of India on cost sharing basis for implementation during 12th Five Year Plan which is being implemented in two Components. The Minister said that CAPD is working on first component and they are hopeful that the work of Component 1 will be completed by August 15, 2016.
The Minister issued instructions to the Department to connect all Tehsil Supply Offices of the state and Food Godowns with 24 hours Internet service so that the project could be initiated from August 15, 2016 and advised both Directors of Kashmir and Jammu to take the project in Mission mode and complete it before the set time. He added that once started, the project will transform manual system of work in CAPD into fully digitized system which is vibrant step towards bringing transparency in the department.The Minister said that computerization of PDS has been taken up across the country on priority basis with a view to address various challenges of current system on the National Portal. He added that e-PDS project has been approved at a cost of Rs 20.37 crore out of which Centre has released Rs 6.11 Cr. and state released Rs. 3.69 crore. He said that till date they have spend Rs 3.67 crore from state share and 2.91 crore from central share. On the occasion, the Minister issued instruction to NIC to manage linking of J&K Bank Transactions of CAPD Department with the official website of CAPD, J&K so that complete transparency can be achieved in the transactions.