Northeastern states asked to expedite computerisation of PDS

The Cnion government has asked five northeastern states - Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura - to expedite the computerisation of Public Distribution System (PDS) for its better and transparent performance, an official said here on Tuesday.

"Cent per cent works of digitisation of ration cards in most of the states, including the northeastern states, in the country were completed, but progress of Aadhaar seeding in ration cards is very poor in most of the northeasten states except Tripura and Sikkim," a Tripura official said referring the official documents of Central government's Food and Public Distribution Department.

The official said that Aadhaar seeding in ration cards in Tripura and Sikkim is more than 90 per cent while in the other northeastern states, this is on an average 30 per cent only.

A two-day workshop on "Digital Transformation and Automation of PDS Operations" begun here on Tuesday to speed up the computerisation of PDS in these five northeastern states. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb inaugurated the workshops where senior officials of five states and Central government were attended.

Union Food and Public Distribution Department Director D.K. Gupta said that a scheme on "End to End Computerisation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) Operations" with a total approved cost of Rs 884.07 crore is being implemented throughout the country.

According to the official, the computerisation scheme was launched in 2012-13.

Under the scheme, financial and technical assistance is being provided to states and union territories. For the northeastern states, the funding pattern is on the basis of 90:10 ratio, where 90 percent of the total expenditure was borne by the central government and 10 percent contributed by the state concerned.

--IANS

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