Read the last part of page 137 i.e., “Studies indicate............ for access”, and write your opinion.

Public Distribution system was established to ensure food security in the country. Both the Union and State Government have the responsibility of regulating this system. The union government is responsible for procuring, transporting and allocating the food grains. The state government, on the other hand, are responsible for distributing these food grains to the consumers through ration shops. They are also held accountable for identification of below poverty line families but and monitoring the function of these systems. In India, there are many such shops through which food is made available to the needy sections of the society at a very low rate.

The southern parts of the country have shown a good record in distributing food through this system. They have followed the Universal Public Distribution system stating that food grains would be available to everyone at a very low cost. On the other hand, there are other states where this system has not worked efficiently. There are many problems of these systems which are faced all over the country. Some of these are mentioned below:

1. Consumers often complain about receiving the inferior quality of food grains.

2. The shopkeepers in such cases replace the food grains received from the Food Corporation of India and with lower quality food grains and sell the original goods received in the black market.
3. These shopkeepers indulge into such activities due to the low salary received by them.

4. The identification of families living below the poverty line is also another problem faced by the country.

5. Unsatisfactory regional allocation of food grains.

6. High level of corruption that exist within this Public Distribution system

Certain steps can be taken by the government of India to ensure the effective functioning of these systems:

1. FCI should check the quality of food grains for distribution at the lower level as well.

2. Proper methods should be employed to identify the BPL families in the country.

3. The shopkeepers should display a chart of the food grains and the quantity available in front of the shops. These charts should also display the prices of the same.

4. Frequent checks should be conducted to eliminate any kind of corruption within this system.

If the above steps are properly and effectively implemented, the country can ensure proper distribution of foodgrains among the lower sections of the society.