The World Food Program team headed by Mr. Torben Due, Director Operations and comprising of Mr. John Aylieff, Deputy Regional Director for Asia, Mr. Peter Rodrigues Senior program advisor, Office of Deputy Executuve Director Operations, Ms. Mihoko Tamamura, Representaive & Country head for India WFP, Mr. Micheal Jensen, Deputy Country Director India WFP, visited Rayagada district today to asses the progress and future requirements of the Biometric based targeted PDS project that is being implemented in the Rayagada district. Ms. Ravneet Kaur IAS, Joint Secretary from the ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India was also present.
Collector Rayagada, Dr. Nitin.B.Jawale, IAS gave a presentation on the project in general and the latest issues in particular as given below:
After the inauguration of the project on 18th August 2010, number of errors were detected in the database such as wrong classification of a beneficiaries ( BPL being classified as APL), mistakes in names, village and Gram Panchayat names and like. The quantum of such mistakes was about 5% of the database of about 1.9 lakh odd. Also there was the issue of the persons whose names figured in the 1997 BPL survey, but were not included in the 2002 survey, but still were enrolled under this project and were issued with Biometric based smart cards or bar coded cards and coupons. The allotment for such beneficiaries is an issue that needs to be sorted out, as the district administration does not get allotment for these beneficiaries.Lastly the issue of left out households remains.
These impediments prevented the full and final roll out of this project in the form of generation of computerized MIS. For a year district administration with the support of WFP had been working at rectifying the errors in the database and at this stage, as things stands, most of the wrong classification cases have been rectified and their cards sent for printing by WFP. The district administration will distribute these cards as soon as it receives from WFP. Also for the enrollment of the left out families, which again forms about 5% of the total database of household, 2 mobile vans have been kept at the disposal of the district administration. Only if the issue of the households who have already been issued biometric based cards, but fro whom the district administration does not receive allotment, is sorted out by either the Govt of India or the state govt, the district administration will be in a position to operationalize the MIS in full. This will then make this project a model to be replicated elsewhere in the state or the country.
Inspite of these glithces the project implematation has ensured that about 22,000 bogus/ ghost cards were eliminated and leakages and pilferages in the PDS were effectively checked, which resulted in the saving of Rs. 3 crore sin one year in this district alone.
Because of the specific last mile issues and problems, the Collector Rayagada stressed the need for enhancing the handholding period by WFP for another year, after the the previous duration ends in May 2012.
In the afternoon the team visited the Maitree Fair Price Shop in Rayagada Municipality area and the Penta GP office, which also acts as a FPS. The team closely examined the working of this system in urban areas, where the essential commodities are distributed by the way of a PoS ( Point of Sale) device, which reads the biometric based smart cards and in the rural area, the system, which is based of bar coded card and coupons.
Collector Rayagada, Dr. Nitin.B.Jawale, IAS gave a presentation on the project in general and the latest issues in particular as given below:
After the inauguration of the project on 18th August 2010, number of errors were detected in the database such as wrong classification of a beneficiaries ( BPL being classified as APL), mistakes in names, village and Gram Panchayat names and like. The quantum of such mistakes was about 5% of the database of about 1.9 lakh odd. Also there was the issue of the persons whose names figured in the 1997 BPL survey, but were not included in the 2002 survey, but still were enrolled under this project and were issued with Biometric based smart cards or bar coded cards and coupons. The allotment for such beneficiaries is an issue that needs to be sorted out, as the district administration does not get allotment for these beneficiaries.Lastly the issue of left out households remains.
These impediments prevented the full and final roll out of this project in the form of generation of computerized MIS. For a year district administration with the support of WFP had been working at rectifying the errors in the database and at this stage, as things stands, most of the wrong classification cases have been rectified and their cards sent for printing by WFP. The district administration will distribute these cards as soon as it receives from WFP. Also for the enrollment of the left out families, which again forms about 5% of the total database of household, 2 mobile vans have been kept at the disposal of the district administration. Only if the issue of the households who have already been issued biometric based cards, but fro whom the district administration does not receive allotment, is sorted out by either the Govt of India or the state govt, the district administration will be in a position to operationalize the MIS in full. This will then make this project a model to be replicated elsewhere in the state or the country.
Inspite of these glithces the project implematation has ensured that about 22,000 bogus/ ghost cards were eliminated and leakages and pilferages in the PDS were effectively checked, which resulted in the saving of Rs. 3 crore sin one year in this district alone.
Because of the specific last mile issues and problems, the Collector Rayagada stressed the need for enhancing the handholding period by WFP for another year, after the the previous duration ends in May 2012.
In the afternoon the team visited the Maitree Fair Price Shop in Rayagada Municipality area and the Penta GP office, which also acts as a FPS. The team closely examined the working of this system in urban areas, where the essential commodities are distributed by the way of a PoS ( Point of Sale) device, which reads the biometric based smart cards and in the rural area, the system, which is based of bar coded card and coupons.
