Centre to make fair price shops lucrative
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution looks to add activities such as rail ticketing, UPI payment, mobile phone recharge to FPS domain
image for illustrative purpose
Enhancing Ambit of Work
- 40,000 FPS dealers across India
- Ministry will impart training and provide infra to FPS dealers
New Delhi: The central government is working on a plan to ensure that fair price shops (FPS) open every day for longer durations. It also wants to add more activities to FPS. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, is chalking out a mechanism to add such activities as rail ticketing, UPI payment, mobile phone recharge, filing applications for government schemes and services to FPS, official sources told Bizz Buzz.
By expanding the ambit of work of FPS, the Ministry hopes to make their operations more remunerative. The Ministry is working on the augmentation of FPS functions because it receives complaints from people that FPS open only for a few days in a month, resulting in hassles in getting the monthly quota of the foodgrains and other items. FPS owners, on the other hand, lament that they don’t have enough incentives to keep the shops open for more days in a month.
The Ministry will impart the necessary training and provide the requisite infrastructure tools to help FPS owners engage in activities other than giving away grains. FPSs are the principal interface between the Centre and people in the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The Centre in December last year decided to merge the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which was launched during the Covid pandemic, with the National Food Security Act.
Also, FPSs have become critical for the government for the distribution of fortified rice to tackle the growing incidents of anemia and stunting among children. The Centre has approved the supply of fortified rice throughout the Targeted Public Distribution System under the NFSA and in other welfare schemes in a phase-wise manner. The pilot for expansion of work in FPS has already been done in Jharkhand and Maharashtra. The Ministry intends to scale up the pilot at the national level. There are about 40,000 FPS dealers in the country.
