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Public Distribution System

The document summarizes the revamped public distribution system (RPDS) in India. The RPDS was launched in 1992 to cover 1,775 backward and remote blocks, providing additional commodities to people through fair price shops. Over time, the coverage of RPDS was expanded to additional blocks. Key achievements include opening over 14,000 new fair price shops, issuing 3.86 million new ration cards, and providing additional storage capacity and commodities. The RPDS aims to improve access to food and other essentials for rural and poor populations in India at subsidized prices.

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Nitika Dhatwalia
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260 views10 pages

Public Distribution System

The document summarizes the revamped public distribution system (RPDS) in India. The RPDS was launched in 1992 to cover 1,775 backward and remote blocks, providing additional commodities to people through fair price shops. Over time, the coverage of RPDS was expanded to additional blocks. Key achievements include opening over 14,000 new fair price shops, issuing 3.86 million new ration cards, and providing additional storage capacity and commodities. The RPDS aims to improve access to food and other essentials for rural and poor populations in India at subsidized prices.

Uploaded by

Nitika Dhatwalia
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

MEANING

Public distribution system is a government-sponsored chain of shops entrusted with the


work of distributing basic food and non-food commodities to the needy sections of the
society at very cheap prices. Wheat, rice, kerosene, sugar, etc. are a few major
commodities distributed by the public distribution system.
REVAMPED PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
 On 1st January, 1992, the Government of India launched a new scheme to revamp the
public distribution system (PDS). Under this scheme, the Government has identified 1775
blocks falling in drought prone desert, integrated tribal development project areas and
certain designated hill areas.
 It has been estimated that the revamped PDS would cover nearly 16 crore people living in
these identified areas and accordingly decided to issue new ration cards in these newly
identified areas.
 In these areas, additional commodities like tea, soap, pulses and iodized salts are also
envisaged to be distributed through PDS. It has been decided that about 11,000 new fair
price shops (FPS) would be opened in these identified areas to cater to the basic needs of
the people.
 The Government has taken initiatives to open 1,000 additional godowns with a total
storage capacity of 3, 30,000 tonnes in these identified areas.
FUNCTIONING OF REVAMPED
PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
 The Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS) was launched on January 1, 1992
in 1775 backward and remote blocks falling in drought prone areas, additional
commodities like tea, soap, pulses and iodized salt are reportedly distributed by
State Governments. Besides the existing 1775 RPDS blocks, Government have
identified additional 409 blocks for its inclusion under RPDS scheme.

 In order to ensure increased availability of food grains in Revamped PDS areas, an


additional quantity of 3.1 million tonnes of food grains (both rice and wheat) has
been earmarked for its allocation among the States and UTs.
EXTENSION OF REVAMPED PDS:
The Central Government has announced the extension of the much
publicized revamped public distribution system (RPDS) to 671 additional
blocks. The extension of coverage to these additional blocks under RPDS
will be in line with the Prime Minister’ announcement some time back that
additional blocks identified for implementation of the employment
assurance scheme (EAS) will be brought under the RPDS.
The Department of Rural Areas and Employment has now finalised the list
of 2446 blocks to be covered under the EAS programme. This includes
1775 blocks already covered under RPDS, thus leaving an additional 671
blocks to which the RPDS could be extended.
It has now been decided that the geographical coverage of RPDS would be
extended to all the 2446 Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) Blocks.
During 1995-96, RPDS has been extended to 200 more blocks.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF REVAMPED PDS:

• The key achievements of RPDS since its launching on January 1, 1992


include the following:
1. A total of 1,775 blocks have been identified in 23 states and four Union Territories
under the scheme. These include blocks covered under various area specific
programmes such as Desert Development Programme (DDP), Drought Prone Areas
Programme (DPAP), the Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDP) and certain
Designated Hill Areas (DHA) for implementing the RPDS.

2. In all, 14,181 additional Fair Price Shops (FPS) have been opened in the RPDS areas to
improve its access to the consumers.
ACHIEVEMENTS (CONTD.)

3. About 3.86 million additional ration cards have, till now, been issued as a part of the scheme
to issue ration cards to all households in the RPDS areas.

4. Additional storage capacity worth 4, 62,000 tonnes had been hired and 69,000 tonnes storage
facility created in these areas.

5. Additional commodities of common use such as tea, iodized salt, pulses and soaps are being
distributed through Public Distribution System (PDS) outlets in the RPDS areas in most states.
6. A scheme to deliver PDS commodities at the door step of Fair Price Shops (FPS) has been introduced.
About 55 thousand FPS out of a total number of 1,02,000 FPS in the RPDS areas have been covered
under this scheme.
IMPORTANT PRICES RELATED TO THE PDS
NEW TARGETED PDS
• PDS began as a Universal Programme in India due to food shortages of the mid 1960’s.
But, since 1997 it has been exclusively targeted towards the poor, providing Wheat, Rice,
Sugar and Kerosene at a highly subsidised to the below poverty line households.
• The objective was to help very poor families buy food grains at a reasonably low cost to
enable them to improve their nutrition standards and attain food security. The new
system followed a two-tier subsidised pricing structure: one for BPL families, and
another for Above the Poverty Line (APL) families.
• Targeted Public Distribution System(TPDS) was launched, replacing the nearly universal
public distribution system. The TPDS sells major food grains, mainly rice and wheat,
from Fair Price Shops at significantly lower prices than the market. Different states have
adopted different reform measures to strengthen TPDS functioning.
THANK YOU !

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