Tur dal supply through e-way for mid-day meal

The State Food and Civil Supplies Department has chosen the e-way to put a check on cartel formation in procurement of tur dal under the mid-day meal scheme for students of government schools.

The Department has begun procuring tur dal from dal millers through spot online trading with the assistance of the Mumbai-based National Commodities Exchange Limited.
“As a result, the department is getting tur dal at very competitive rates. We are also getting the best quality. The move is expected to save the goverment up to Rs 30 crore every year,” Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shobha Karandlaje told reporters on Tuesday.

So far, the department was procuring dal through conventional tendering process. District-wise tenders used to be called once in two months for the supply of tur dal.
The local traders had formed a cartel and used to take the department for a ride by quoting rate higher than the market price in the tender.

The department procures about 20,000 quintals of tur dal every year spending about Rs 120 crore, she said.

Economical

The department has been able to procure dal at much lesser rates under the new system. For instance, it had paid Rs 5,535 per quintal of tur dal in Bellary last year under the conventional tender system.

Under e-procurement, the department recently bought tur for Rs 4,398 per quintal – saving Rs 1,137 per quintal. The department has bought about 16,000 quintals of tur dal so far this year and saved about Rs 1.70 crore, the minister said.

As many as 45 dal millers, including eight from Maharastra and two from Delhi, have enrolled for the online tur dal trading.

The department has decided to procure tur dal twice a year through the new system. Payment for the supply will be made only after verifying the quality and quantity of the dal, she said.

She said plans are on the cards to switch to e-procurement for supplying palm oil and salt under the mid-day meal scheme.

Revenue details

Shobha said the department has almost completed the process of verifying RR (Revenue Register) number details provided by LPG consumers across all major cities and towns in the State, and it will soon publish the list of bogus LPG connections.