PDS now moves to supermarkets

The Food and Civil Supplies department is proposing to expand its move of distributing food grains under the Public Distribution System (PDS) to beneficiaries through supermarket outlets.

The department, last month, in a pilot project, had entered into a tie-up with the Malleswaram unit of Foodworld for disbursing food grains under the PDS to beneficiaries.

As many as 300 ration card holders were given their quota of ration including rice at Re 1 per kg under the Annabhagya scheme from the supermarket.

The department officials said the feedback from the beneficiaries has been positive.

A majority of the beneficiaries said that disbursing provisions under PDS through supermarkets had its advantage as they were open for longer hours and also on Sunday and holidays.

Besides, the electronic weighing machines ensured that they got the correct measure of provisions.

The department will monitor the pilot project for two more weeks, seek inputs for improvisation and then scout for more supermarkets to extend the scheme to other parts of Bangalore.