The main aim of the Public Distribution System (PDS) is to provide essential commodities like wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene to the consumers al reasonatie prices, It helps in providing minimum nutritious ciet to the people. PDS system also has a stabilising effect on open market prices by increasing the availability of the commodities through the: fair price shops. Features of the PDS Six -ssential commodities - Wheat, rice, sugar, imported edible olls, kerosene and soft-coke ara supplied at concessional rates through about 4.74 lakhs fair price shops spread over the country. The Central Govemment procures and supplies these -| tems to the states which .are responsible for their disbibuion and administration of the PDS. Stales can add eny olher commodity of mass consumption-to the above 6 items. Some states ate also supplying maich boxes, tea, salt, soap, etc, About 9-10% of the total production of food grains is being supplied through the PDS per year. The central government spends over Rs.32,900 crores. as subsidy on account of wheat and rice alone due to the concessional rates of supplies. Drawbacks The drawbacks of the PDS are mounting financial The Targetied Public Distribution System (TPDS) was launched in 1997 for better targetting of poor families. it was intended to benefit aby...1 six-crore PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM burdens on the governments in the form of subsidy, inadequate coverage of rural and backward areas, corruption, ete. The PDS has an urban bias. Nearly half of the total number of villages do not have a {sir price shop. The revamped PDS attempis to rectify this to a certain. extent. The corruption in the. system is due to litle profit margin for the owners of fair price shops, combined with ineffective monitoring by vigilance committees. Revamiped PDS The revamped PDS was launched in Jan, 1992. tt is an area-specific programme with an emphasis on improving the PDS in 1700 selected blocks in the remote tribal, desert, drought prone and designated hill areas. The programme envisages opening of 11,000 additional fair price shops, erection of an additiona! 3.3 lakh tonnes storage capacity, and issuing of nearly 21 lakh new ration cards in these areas covering a population of about 167 millions, Mobile shops are to be operated where permanant outlets are non-viable on financial ground. The central government suggested to the states to include some more items of mass consumption like tea, soap and salt to the PDS. Vigilance committees at various levels including the fair price shop level are to be set up to monitor effectively the functioning of the PDS, TARGETED PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM The allocation was gradually increased from 10 kg to 35 kg per family per month. The central issue price for poor families ts Rs.4.15 per kg for what Note: APL ; Above Poverty Line BPL ; Below Poverty Line AAY : Antyodaya Anna Yojana poor families, and Rs.5.65 per kg for rice, CENTRAL ISSUE PRICES OF FOODGRAIN UNDER TPDS {in Rupees) Commodity APL BPL AAY . per Kg per Kg per Kg Rice 8.30 5.65 3.00 Wheat 6.10 4.15 2.00includes APL, BPL, AAY, Annapoorna) was 31.3 mitlion tonnes in 2006-07. ANTYODAYA ANNA YOJANA The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on December 25, 2001. Under the scheme 1 crore poorest families out of the.BPL families covered under the Targeted Public Distribution System are identified. 25 kgs of foodgrains were made avaitabie to each eligible family at a highly. subsidized rate of Rs.2 per kg for wheat and Rs.3 per kg for tice. This quantity has been ‘enhanced from 25 to 35 kgs with effect from Apri, 2002. The coverage under the (mS total off-take of foodgrains under TPDS (which scheme is also being expanded by bringing in more families. At present 2.5 crore families are covered -under this scheme. ANNAPURNA This scheme was launched on April 1, 2000 as a 4100 per cent Centrally Sponsored Scheme. It ainis at providing food security to’ meet the requirement of those senior citizens (65 years or above) who though eligible for pension winder the National ‘Old Age Pension Schema, are not getting the same.. 10 kgs of foodgraine per person per month are supplied free of cost. Against the allocation of 1.67 lakh. tonnes in 2006-07, the total of off-take was 0.9 lakh tonnes.