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Barcoded coupons to help check flaws in PDS

Last Updated 03 May 2016, 19:20 IST

The Karnataka food and civil supplies department has launched a pilot project of providing biometrics-based barcoded coupons to beneficiaries to keep track of commodities provided through the public distribution system (PDS).

To begin with, coupons are being provided for procuring kerosene at select 50 fair price shops in Bengaluru. It will be extended to food grains and other commodities. The plan is to extend it to the entire state after refining the model in three to four months. The barcoded coupons can be procured by the beneficiary by providing his/her biometrics at the nearest BengaluruOne centre or other citizen-centric service kiosks.

Harsh Gupta, principal secretary, Food and Civil Supplies department, said under the authentication process, the biometrics will be matched with the department’s centralised database server and a barcoded coupon will be generated. The printouts of the coupon will be provided at the kiosks.

The coupon will have details on the quantum of ration that can be received by the beneficiaries and the amount to be charged. The beneficiary will have to furnish the coupon at the fair price shop to get the ration, Gupta said.

Poor response to point-of-sales machines

The new system is being put in place following poor response to the department’s proposal of making multi-utility hand-held devices (point-of-sales machines) mandatory at fair price shops across the state to usher in accountability and check irregularities in the PDS.

“It has been three years since fair price shops were asked to instal point-of-sales machines. Many are yet to instal the device and are giving excuses. There were complaints by shopowners that there was a problem with network connectivity or there was power failure.

These lapses gave scope for irregularities. We had to look for an alternative,” Gupta said.
The point-of-sales devices were to keep track of transactions at fair price shops and were to have scanners to capture the biometrics of beneficiaries, print bills and send stock details to the central server of the department.

Under the coupon system, there is no need of having the machines at the shops, but still the authentication process can happen. The officer said the department is contemplating providing coupons for three to four months at one go so that the beneficiary need not make multiple visits to kiosks. The department is also working on sending the coupon number via SMS to the beneficiary on a registered mobile number.

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(Published 03 May 2016, 19:17 IST)

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