App-based system for ration distribution

Tribune News Service

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Shimla, April 24

Consumer Affairs Minister Kishan Kapoor on Tuesday launched an app-based paperless system for ration card holders. 

He said this would help check pilferage and misuse of ration cards by depot holders and others. Addressing mediapersons, he said the government had provided 

Rs 12 crore under the HP Grahini Suvidha Yojana under which LPG connections would be distributed to women. 

He said Himachal had become the first state  to launch this app-based paperless system. 

The minister said beneficiaries were now not required to bring along the ration card to get 

PDS quota as they would get cash memo and bill through an SMS on their number.

He said 88 per cent of ration cards had been linked with Aadhaar cards. 

Through this new app, beneficiaries could book ration and lodge a complaint against depot holders in case of substandard food quality, he added.

About the measures to check “substandard” quality of food items at PDS depots, Kapur said the department had booked 1,496 offenders and recovered Rs 10.33 lakh as fine from them.

Inspectors collected 2,094 samples of food items from different depots, of which 83 were found not up to the mark. 

Supply from three mills had been stopped for three months, he added.