Parliament Question: Implementation of PDS and Food Security Schemes

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4369 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18TH MARCH, 2026 IMPLEMENTATION OF PDS AND FOOD SECURITY SCHEMES 4369. SHRI AASHTIKAR PATIL NAGESH BAPURAO: Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS. FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state: (a): whether the Government is aware that in several rural, tribal and economically backward areas, beneficiaries under the Public Distribution System (PDS) are facing irregular supply of essential commodities such as rice, wheat, pulses and sugar along with issues of poor quality and corruption in fair price shops; (b): whether the Government has conducted any recent assessments or audits regarding leakages, diversion offoodgrains, biometric authentication failures and exclusion errors in ration distribution and if so, the details thereof; and (c): the details of the concrete steps being taken by the Government to strengthen transparency, ensure doorstep delivery, improve grievance redressal mechanisms, modernize storage and transportation infrastructure and guarantee timely, adequate and quality food supply to all eligible beneficiaries under the National Food Security framework? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS. FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIMATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA) (a): Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under National Food Security Act (NFS A), 2013 is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and the State/Union Territory (UT) Governments. The operational responsibilities for allocation of foodgrains within the States/ UTs, identification of eligible beneficiaries, issuance of ration cards to them, distribution offoodgrains to eligible beneficiaries under TPDS, issuance of license to Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealers, supervision over and monitoring of functioning of FPSs etc. rest with the concerned State/ UT Governments. Accordingly, as and when any type of complaints/ grievances related to TPDS are received in this Department from any source, they are sent to concerned State/ UT Governments for inquiry and appropriate action. Further, no specific complaint cases related to irregular supply/ poor quality of subsidized food grains and corruption in FPSs have been received.(b): In order to strengthen the monitoring of NFS A implementation and to provide a more in- depth, incisive and comprehensive empirical evidence on regular basis, the Department of Food and Public Distribution has engaged an agency for conducting the concurrent evaluation of the implementation of NFSA, 2013 during 2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28. (C): In order to ensure transparency and accountability in TPDS, the National Food Security Act, 2013 provides for periodic social audits on the functioning of fair price shops, Targeted Public Distribution System and other welfare schemes, through local authority, or any other authority or body, as may be authorized by the State Government. In addition to this, the Act provides for constitution of Vigilance Committees at the State, District, Block and fair price shop levels for ensuring transparency and proper functioning of the Targeted Public Distribution System and accountability of the functionaries in the system. Further, various steps have been taken to strengthen transparency, ensure doorstep delivery, improve grievance redressal mechanisms and guarantee timely, adequate and quality food supply to all eligible beneficiaries under the National Food Security as under: • Ration cards/beneficiary’s database have been completely digitized (100%) in all States/UTs and 99.7% of ration cards have been Aadhaar seeded. • More than 5.50 Lakh (99.8%) out of total 5.51 Lakh Fair Price Shops (FPSs) in the country have been automated by installing ePoS devices for the distribution of foodgrains through Aadhaar biometric authentication of beneficiaries. • The nationwide portability of ration cards, popularly known as One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) has been implemented in all 36 States/UTs, covering all Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yoj ana (PMGKAY) beneficiaries. As on date, more than 207 Crore portability transactions have been recorded under ONORC. • The transparency portal and online grievance redressal facility/Toll-free number have been implemented in all States/UTs. • Online allocation has been implemented in all States/UTs and supply chain has been computerized in 31 States/UTs (except UTs of Chandigarh, Puduchemy and Urban area of Dadra & Nagar Haveli which have adopted DBT Cash Transfer scheme). Food Corporation of India under the supervision of Department of Food & Public Distribution • is implementing a robust monitoring mechanism for transportation of food grains using Road Transport Contractors (RTCs) from dispatching depot till receiving depot. A GPS enabled live tracking solution viz. Vehicle Location Tracking System (VLTS) has been developed which envisaged to track the vehicles used in transportation of food grains in every transition. The objective of the project is to introduce a vehicle tracking system for continuous monitoring of vehicles used in movement of food grains in order to prevent pilferages/theft of PDS foodgrains during movement of foodgrains and to promote transparent procurement and movement with enhanced vehicle traceability matrix. Implementation of VehicleLocation Tracking System (VLTS) in State/UT Governments till the last mile delivery of PDS food grains is also being done by the respective states. $c+c R +iSeSq