e-POS would be intalled at all fair price shops by March

To curb irregularities in FPSs, EPOS machines have already been introduced in 1545 FPSs spread in the 9 circles of Hyderabad and 3 circles of RR Dists from last March onwards. These are bio metric machines and function on the basis of Aadhar Number. So far, Rs 190 crores have been saved after the introduction of this system, the Commissioner added. EPOS helps in removing the irregularities in PDS, in ensuring that the benefits reach the card holder in full, in monitoring the accurate stock position in Fair Price shops at any given time etc, he said.

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan held a meeting in New Delhi on January 19 with all the Commissioners of State-level Civil Supplies Departments and directed them to implement the cashless transactions through their network by the end of next March. While clarifying the firm determination of the Centre on Cashless transactions, the Minister had clarified to all the



food Secretaries that in case of failure, some sort of cut would be imposed in the Central subsidy from April 15. He also informed the meeting that Rs 17 should be paid to the dealer of the FPS for every quintal, if he procured the EPOS unit on his own. He said he Union Government would pay half of that amount and the rest should be borne by the State Governments. As the Telangana government was arranging the machines on rental basis, the Central subsidy of Rs 8.50 would directly be credited to the State Treasury, Anand said.

In the biometric process, often problems are cropping up whenever the finger prints are hazy. So to get over it, IRIS is introduced and similarly voice over system would be of much help to the rural folk and particularly so to the illiterate, he explained. On the whole, with the introduction of EPOS in all the 16560 FPSs, every year approximately 15- 20% would be saved to the exchequer, which means an amount of Rs.750-800 crores.