VIJAYAWADA: India’s first-of-its-kind Central Command Control Centre to monitor Public Distribution System (PDS) in the country from procurement of grains to their distribution to households has started functioning from Wednesday in the city of Vijayawada in AP .
Inaugurating the centre located within the Civil Supplies Building at Kanuru, civil supplies minister Karumuri Venkata Nageswara Rao disclosed that the strong fool-proof surveillance system in all 26 districts of Andhra Pradesh will monitor collection of crops from farmers, their movement to MLS godowns and rice mills, and delivery of grains to beneficiaries’ homes, anganwadi centres or schools.
The minister said senior officials will utilise CCTV cameras to monitor the entire collection to distribution chain. This will alert officers concerned about points of loopholes, so that appropriate corrective action could be taken to prevent any irregularities.
Nageswara Rao asked farmers not to worry about their crops, as government will purchase every grain produced by them. He pointed out that government is also promoting cultivation of millets. A system to procure millets will also be put in place soon.
The minister pointed out that distribution of wheat flour through PDS has started in north Andhra as a pilot project. It will soon spread all over the state. He refuted propaganda about poor quality dal being supplied through the PDS. He underlined that officials themselves have cooked the dal to check its quality and have found no quality defects.
Civil Supplies commissioner H. Arun Kumar, Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Corporation managing director G. Veerapandian and Civil Supplies director M. Vijaya Sunitha were among those present.
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