Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal on Thursday asked all States and Union Territories (UTs) to make earnest efforts to implement SMART-PDS, the technology-driven initiative, for transparency in the Public Distribution System (PDS).

Addressing a Conference of Food Ministers of all States and UTs here, Piyush Goyal said there was a need for a transparent and accountable system to reduce human intervention and promote automation in the existing processes. Transparency should be of utmost importance for a free supply chain of foodgrains under PDS.

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The minister praised the Andhra Pradesh Command Control saying the Central government, along with the state government, will work together for the implementation of the system in other states also. On the storage front, the Union Minister stated that Food Corporation of India (FCI) is upgrading its godowns into “five-star” rated godowns.

The state governments can also upgrade their godowns, he said. With regard to settlement of pending claims of State Governments, he said that it was being done on priority basis and would be settled immediately.

Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ashwini Kumar Choubey referred to the major initiatives undertaken by the Government to strengthen the Public Distribution System in India.

In particular, he highlighted the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) implemented from April 2020 to December 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic, in coordination with States & UTs, and the One Nation One Ration Card plan implemented to support migrant population. He emphasized the importance of promoting millets in the PDS to further strengthen nutritional security in the country.

During the conference, issues related to Procurement of millets and their usage among beneficiaries of PMGKAY was discussed. All states have been urged to learn from the best practice of using millets in schemes like ICDS, mid-day meal and PDS in Karnataka, which is helpful in adding nutrition and promoting healthy diet.

The conference also deliberated on fighting anaemia and nutritional deficiencies in various parts of the country by suitably creating awareness on benefits of fortified rice.

States were encouraged to procure more millets and coarse grains. All State Governments were asked to open procurement centres for coarse grains in producing districts, especially, in tribal areas. State Governments were asked to encourage consumption of coarse grains as well.

The expected procurement of coarse grains/millets (Shri Anna) is 7.50 LMT during the KMS 2022-23(Kharif & Rabi) as against actual procurement of 6.30 LMT during KMS 2021-22. The State Government of Karnataka will procure 6 LMT millets (5 LMT Ragi and 1 LMT Jowar) in KMS 2022-23.

A quantity of 341.50 LMT wheat has been estimated for procurement from 10 wheat procuring States during the forthcoming RMS 2023-24, which is much more than actual procurement of 187.92 LMT of wheat during previous RMS 2022-23. In this connection, it was stated that Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh will move 25 LMT, 15 LMT and 20 LMT wheat, respectively.

Also, a quantity of 106 LMT rice (rabi crop) has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming rabi crop of current KMS 2022-23 from 11 rice (rabi crop) procuring States. States were advised to enhance milling capacity so that milling of one season gets completed before the commencement of next season and recycling of rice may be avoided.

The conference discussed the issue of account finalization by foodgrain procuring states so that all pending payments are cleared in a time bound manner.

During the discussions, it emerged that sufficient jute bags are available as per requirement of the ensuing season. Issues related to finalization of audited accounts, food subsidy claims and rationalization of food subsidy were also deliberated upon. State Governments were requested to submit their pending bills to FCI and DFPD so that those can be settled in March, 2023.