WORLD FOOD PROGRAM TEAM EVALUATES BIOMETRIC BASED TPDS

World food programme team arrived in Rayagada for the evaluation of the Biometric based Targeted PDS program in this district. The team consisted of Mr. Iqbal Subhan form Bangladesh, Ms. Bhatia and Ms. Pradnya Paithankar from WFP offices from Bangkok and Delhi respectively. The team after discussing with the BDOs and officers of Civil supplies dept, the team visited some Fair price shops where the rations to see how the ration is issued in the Biometric based TPDS. This Biometric based TPDS system has eliminated more than 20000 bogus/ ghost cards and this move itself has brought a saving of Rs. 3.5 crore per month in Rayagada district alone. This has shout the mouth of all distractors of this program, who have been constantly harping on the glitches in the program, like data errors and exclusion of some genuine people. This aspect was explained to the WFP evaluation team and also that efforts are being taken cover the left out population. Another important aspect of this program is that Rayagada is the only district in the state in which 2002 BPL list is followed for Biometric enumeration.
The WFP team then visited the Kumtilpeta Gram panchayat area where, as in other rural parts of the district, PDS is issued to the people with bar coded coupons. All biometric data of the rural population is collected and bar coded cards have been provided to them.