Over 37 million benefit as Gujarat becomes first to go cashless in PDS

State beats March deadline set by dept of consumer affairs, goes cashless in all 17,250 centres

Gujarat has turned its public grain distribution (PDS) system entirely cashless across the state, becoming the first in the country to do so. With this, over 37.5 million people will now be able to pay cashless using their Aadhaar cards.

In mid-January, the department of consumer affairs, food and public distribution of India had organised a meeting with state food ministers, to install cashless system in PDS by end of March. However, Gujarat became the first state in India to do so by installing cashless systems in all its 17,250 centres, much ahead of the March deadline.

"After the meeting with the union government, we asked all shops to install systems for cashless transactions for foodgrain distribution. More than 37.5 million people or eight million families are now covered under the new payment system," said Jayesh Radadiya, minister of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, Gujarat.

Gujarat has gone a step ahead by partnering with common service centres, and setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with the ministry of electronics and information technology to offer 30-odd digital services through the FPSs.

Apart from food distribution, consumers can soon also buy bus, rail and air tickets, and pay utility bills digitally, while students can get monthly conveyance passes for government-run bus services.

According to Radadiya, the state government will soon start services offering rail, air and bus ticket at PDS centres in cashless mode. "A beneficiary can pay his mobile bill, farmers can deposit crop insurance premium and LIC premium and even get the soil health card and registration for centrally-sponsored schemes," Radadiya added.