According toUN’s World Food Programme(WFP),Uttarakhandhas become the country’s first state to have “fully digitised, GPS-tagged and cost-effective targetedpublic distribution system(PDS).”
Under this model, ration shops and godowns are geotagged and transportation of each food grain-carrying vehicle is tracked for timely delivery to the beneficiaries, resulting in prevention of adulteration and leakage of highly-subsidised food grains in the market by the transporters and warehouse keepers.
Uttarakhand has over 9,000 ration shops and 200 warehouses for storing grains presently.
The collaboration between the state and WFP has brought together innovation and automation to the existing food safety nets, thus directly benefiting 95 lakh people every month.
According to WFP officials, Uttarakhand is also the country’s first state to install a mobile storage unit (MSU) with a 500 metric ton capacity for the storage of grains in Haridwar during Kumbh and now the has taken the initiative to Rudrapur.