Telangana saved over 2 Lakh Tonnes of rice worth Rs 578 Cr, Know how!

Hyderabad, February 27: In good news, Telangana government saved over 2 Lakh tonnes of rice worth Rs 578 Crores as it reached to the genuine beneficiaries through the public distribution system. All the credit goes to the Telangana government's ePOS project. 

The ePOS (electronic point of sale), was launched as a pilot project by Civil Supplies Department in 2016, was subsequently introduced in around 17,000 Fair Price Shops across the state.

"The department has successfully completed the toughest IT Project by putting in place ePos in around 17,000 Fair Price Shops in Telangana. These shops have been fully automated with ePOS project," said Civil Supplies Commissioner C V Anand.

Further, he said the ePos helped in the distribution of ration commodities to the real beneficiaries and the return of the surplus (commodities) to the government with correct weight measures.

"This system is successful in putting barriers on the black marketing of commodities meant for Public Distribution System (PDS) and the misbehaviour of fair price shops dealers," he said.

In March 2016, ePOS was started as a pilot project by introducing it in 1545 ration shops in Greater Hyderabad Zone, he said.

Explaining the ePos functioning, Anand said ePos machines with a display board and a keypad are incorporated to weighing machine, and finger prints of beneficiaries and ration dealers are collected and saved in the machine. Aadhaar cards of beneficiaries are linked to the machines. Commodities are supplied to the beneficiary concerned with a print copy of the details and all these transactions are done online.

"Statewide, 85 lakh families are distributed with PDS rice and for this Civil Supplies Department is supplying 1.75 lakh tonnes of rice," he said.

"For distributing rice at Rs 1 per kg, the government is spending Rs 27 per kg, i.E. The government is bearing the subsidy of Rs 26 per kg. In 23 months, since the introduction of the ePOS project till this month, as many as 4.20 crores transactions are carried out. A total of Rs 578.90 crore value of 2,15,759 metric tonnes of rice is saved to the government," Anand added.