Aizawl, Mizoram will make GPS tracking mandatory for trucks transporting rice and link fair price shop retailers’ electronic point-of-sale machines with digital weighing scales to plug leakage and ensure beneficiaries receive their full entitlement, state minister B Lalchhanzova said on Thursday.
The minister also announced higher margins for ration retailers and increased transportation rates. The food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister told reporters that rice-carrying trucks would have to install AIS-140-compliant GPS devices to facilitate monitoring of their movement from the department’s command and control room. The margin for Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Priority Household beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act has been raised to ₹ 3 per kg, while the rates for PHH , Non-NFSA and Mizoram State Special Ration Package categories have been fixed at ₹ 2 per kg from October, he said. Mizoram requires around 91,000 quintals of rice every month for ration distribution, according to the minister. Of this, 54,798.33 quintals are supplied free of cost by the Food Corporation of India under the NFSA, while the state procures around 36,000 quintals from the open market, he said.
Vehicles without the tracking devices would not be allowed to transport ration rice, he said. As an interim measure during the transition period, transporters would be allowed to use a mobile app-based tracking system developed jointly by the Centre and the World Food Programme, before shifting to the mandatory GPS devices, he said.
The system is expected to become fully operational by the end of December, the minister said.
