Parliament Question: EPOS Device Equipped in Fair Price Shops

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5331 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25Tll MARCH, 2026 EPOS DEVICE EQUIPPED IN FAIR PRICE SHOPS 5331. SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL: SHRI CAPTAIN BRIJESH CHOWTA: SHRI TEJASVI SURYA: SHRI LUMBARAM CHOUDHARY: SHRI DAMODAR AGRAWAL: DR. HEMANT VISHNU SAVARA: SHRI BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB: SHRI DILIP SAIKIA: DR. MANNA LAL RAWAT: SHRI PRADEEP KUMAR SINGH: SMT. KAMLESH JAN(,DE: SMT. SANJNA JATAV: SHRI LAVU SRI KRISHNA DEVARAYALU: SHRI YO(,ENDER CHANDOLIA: SHRI RODMAL NAGAR: SHRI BIBHU PRASAD TARAI: SHRI MADHAVANENI RA(,HUNANDAN RAO : SHRI P P CHAUDHARY: Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state: (a): whether all Fair Price Shops (FPSs) in the country have been equipped with Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) devices specially in districts under Bharatpur Lok Sabha Constituency and Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Dakshina Kannada, district-wise and if so, the details thereof; (b): the number of Fair Price Shops currently integrated with the Aadhaar-based authentication system in the Country especially in Rajasthan and Pali Lok Sabha Constituency; (c): whether the Government operates a real-time dashboard to monitor Public Distribution System (PDS) transactions in the States particularly in Chhattisgarh and if so, the details thereof; (d) : the number of ration cards cancelled due to duplication or ineligibility after digitization in the country including Karnataka and Dakshina Kannada; (e): whether the Government proposes to integrate the PDS database with other welfare schemes to ensure targeted benefits in the Country especially in tribal dominated district like Palghar in Maharashtra; and (f): if so, the details thereonANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIMATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA) (a) & (b): More than 5.50 Lakh out of 5.51 Lakh Fair Price Shops (FPSs) i.e. 99.8% in the country have been automated by installing e-PoS devices for the distribution offoodgrains through Aadhaar biometric authentication of beneficiaries. Further, the status of Fair Price Shops (FPSs) integrated with e-PoS devices are as follows: Rajasthan-24,910 FPSs out of 27263 FPSs • o Bharatpur- 976 FPSs out of 1018 FPSs o Pali-755 FPSs out of 808 FPSs Uttar Pradesh- 73127 FPSs out of 73138 FPSs • Karnataka-20481 FPSs out of 20862 FPSs • o Dakshina Kannada- 474 FPSs out of 476 FPSs (c): The Department is continuously monitoring the ONORC operations and monthly PDS transactions through the Central Dashboard namely IM-PDS Portal (imp(is.nic.in) which provide dynamic information/reports about the portability as well as usual PDS transactions happening in the States/UTs (including Chhattisgarh State). (d): As an outcome of the use of technology in TPDS operations i.e., digitization of ration cards/beneficiary databases, Aadhaar seeding, de-duplication process, identification of ineligible records, deaths, permanent migration of beneficiaries, etc. a total of 50,594 ration cards have been deleted in the State of Karnataka (including Dakshina Kannada) in the year 2025. Further, a Statement showing the number of deleted ration cards in the country for the year 2025 is at Annexure. (e) & (f): At present, there is no proposal to integrate the Public Distribution System (PDS) database with other welfare schemes. However, in order to strengthen transparency, improve data accuracy and enable rightful targeting of beneficiaries under NFS A, the Department has undertaken integration of the PDS database with databases of various Ministries/Departments. This includes data sharing and validation with entities such as Income Tax Department (CBDT), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTFI), Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), GST (CBIC) and UIDAI among others Se Ie SeRge qcAnnexure STATUS OF DELETED RATION CARDS IN THE YEAR 2025 Number of deleted SI. State/UT ration cards 1 Andhra Pradesh 102 2 Andaman & Nicobar 50,681 3 Arunachal Pradesh 1,128 4 Assam 24,381 5 Bihar 1 ,49,043 6 Vlandigarh 2,40 1 7 Chhattisgarh 60,496 8 DNH and Daman & Diu 1,101 9 Delhi 11,438 10 Goa 3 ,467 11 Gujarat 69, 102 a3 12 Haryana ,474 13 Himachal Pradesh 7.400 14 Jammu and Kashmir 3,036 15 Jharkhand W,730 16 Karnataka 50,594 17 Kerala 7,261 18 Ladakh 764 19 Lakshadweep 32 20 Madhya Pradesh 260,285 21 Maharashtra 1 ,33,469 22 Manipur 6,515 23 Meghalaya 102 24 Mizoram 742 25 Nagaland 1 ,347 26 Odisha 1 ,21,134 27 Puducherry 763 28 Punjab 2,290 29 Rajasthan 6,05,826 30 Sikkim 2,116 31 Tamil Nadu 33,339 32 Telangana 1 ,40,947 33 Tripura 4,334 34 Uttar Pradesh 5,97,012 35 Uttarakhand 3,014 36 West Bengal 3,74,5 19 Grand Total 41,41, 385/-