PANJIM: As the investigation progresses into the foodgrains scam, the purported scamsters seemed to have mastered the art of smuggling grains meant to the fair price shops (FPS) under the Public Distribution System (PDS). But the question is how do they do it? Several loopholes are helping FPS owners to misappropriate grains have now been revealed.
When contacted, Director of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Gopal Parsekar said, “The department is reviewing the systems and the inspectors have been ordered to suggest robust measures to curb such attempts.” He admitted that certain facilities provided to FPS are being misused.
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Though there are POS Machines in the FPS outlets the unscrupulous elements are taking full advantage of shortcomings to misappropriate the grains and make a killing.
The POS machine needs Internet connectivity to register the thumb impressions of ration cardholders and then provide them with the allocated food grains. Under the garb of weak or no Internet connectivity, the FPS outlets are using manual/pen paper modes for registration. This gives ample scope to liquidate the uncollected stock sometimes in the name of genuine cardholders.
The POS machines are reportedly working on an outdated 2nd Generation (2G) Internet connectivity in the current age of 5G and this gives a chance to FPS to stop POS and use manual mode for registration.
There are constant complaints of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) portal being slow, reducing the speed giving the FPS outlets yet another reason for not using the electronic mode.
The Civil Supplies Department had provided a facility to FPS outlets to use their own thumb impressions on the POS machines last two days of every month for tallying. However, sources said that the FPS outlets are using this facility to misappropriate thousands of kgs of foodgrains and sell it in the open market to make money.
Some inspectors have complained that the FPS owners are not letting them conduct random checks of the operations claiming that they are causing hindrances in the services. This has discouraged the much-required regular inspection of FPS outlets.
Director of Civil Supplies Gopal Parsekar said that as an immediate measure all the FPS outlets will be given permanent Internet connectivity through BSNL. He also informed that the facility of self thumb impression will be reviewed.
