Quality rice at doorsteps: Jagan government to roll out home delivery of ration supplies in AP

A fleet of 2500 Mobile Dispensing Units will be pressed into service for doorstep delivery of rice and other supplies across the state.

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had taken the initiative after witnessing the plight of elderly and differently-abled people, who were made to wait in long queues for supplies,

The government aims to deliver quality rice to the cardholder through a mobile vehicle with an additional cost of Rs 830 crore per annum.

In the earlier PDS, the percentage of husk and colored grains were high, where a majority rejected the ration. To resolve this, the government has decided to provide cardholders with better quality rice by giving Swarna variety.

The Civil Supplies Department made drastic changes during the procurement of rice by reducing the husk and broken rice to a great extent. For the first time, quality sortex rice is being given to the cardholders, with zero percent of stones and less than one percent of dyed or damaged grains, the CM said.

Using the volunteer system, quality rice will be distributed at the doorstep of the cardholders by taking their fingerprints and supplying ration in reusable bags with precise weight. Every bag of rice is sealed and tagged with a unique code, leaving zero scope for adulteration. By fitting GPS to all mobile vehicles, cardholders will be able to know the delivery details in real-time through the mobile app and each vehicle has to deliver the goods for an average of 18 days per month.

Nearly 9,260 mobile vehicles were purchased at a cost of Rs 539 Crore to door deliver the ration supplies and these vehicles were provided by the government at 60 percent subsidy to eligible beneficiaries through various corporations under the Employment Guarantee Scheme for unemployed youth.

The value of each vehicle is Rs 5,81,000, of which Rs 3,48,600 was provided as subsidy from various Corporations and Civil Supplies Corporation will be paid on a monthly basis for a period of six years. Going into the details, 700 vehicles from ST Corporation‌, 2300 vehicles from SC Corporation‌, 3800 vehicles from BC Corporation‌, 660 vehicles from Minorities ‌Corporation‌ , 1800 vehicles from EWEB Corporation‌ were provided to unemployed youth.

In addition to these, the state government is also offering ration cards to eligible people across the state in just 10 days from the date of applying in five categories. From June 2020 to date, 4,93,422 new ration cards were issued, people were added in 17,07,928 new rice cards, 4,38,013 rice cards were divided totaling 26,39,363 rice cards.