The Centre has directed all the states and Union Territories to complete automation of fair price shops (FPS) by March 2014. Union Food Minister K V Thomas said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha that automation of FPS is part of the exercise of end-to-end computerisation of public distribution system (PDS). There are over 5.06 lakh FPS in the country.

He said, FPS automation is being undertaken in states like Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.

The minister said that besides automation of FPS, all states and Union Territories have been requested to undertake computerisation of supply chain, digitisation of ration card database, SMS and e-mail alerts on dispatch and delivery of foodgrains, setting up of transparency portal, toll free number for grievance redressal as part of end-to-end computerisation of PDS. He said computerisation of PDS has been taken up a mission mode project (MMP) under the National e-governance plan (NeGP) by the Central government.

As per MMP guidelines, a dedicated institutional mechanism by way of an Empowered Committee (EC) and a central project e-Mission Team (CPcMT) for computerisation of PDS has been set up.

The Minister said that to ensure timely implementation of computerisation of PDS, the progress is being reviewed in various meetings.