Nagpur ration truck GPRS and online bilty down for two months, paper slips used instead

The online system the government set up to track every sack of ration grain meant for the poor in Nagpur district is now running only on paper. GPRS tracking of trucks leaving with grain from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is not working. Online bilty (consignment note) for grain sent to ration shop owners is also not being generated.

The online system was introduced to bring transparency to the supply of government ration and to keep track of every consignment going from the FCI to ration shops. According to information from the department, the service has been shut since early August, that is, for the past two months.

The aim of the system was to make the route of each grain consignment visible in the online record. With it down, the movement of government ration has again been reduced to paper records. The online record of grain supply has not been updated since August. For now, officials at the zonal level are placing demands for grain on their own, and hand-written bilties are being prepared for supply.

Departmental sources say the company that maintains the online system has a possible dues claim of about Rs 1.40 crore against the department. The shutdown of the service is said to be linked to these dues. Under this cover, the entire work has been running on paper for the past two months, and there is talk of a major irregularity in it.

In Nagpur district's supply system, the role of GPRS is to establish where a truck that left the FCI with grain reached, at what time, and whether it went only to the designated ration shop. With an online record, details of any consignment could be checked later as well. But the system has been down for the past two months, so both digital monitoring of trucks and online access to supply records have been affected.

The question that arises is, with truck GPRS down and the online supply record not being updated, on what basis is each consignment of government grain being monitored.

Repeated attempts were made to contact Shalini Gedam, Food and Grain Distribution Officer (City). She did not respond despite repeated calls and stayed silent on the matter. This suggests the department's indifference.

According to the information available, grain is currently being demanded from zonal offices, and hand-written bilties are being prepared for it. Most importantly, there is no information of any clear official order to start an offline bilty system. Even so, grain is being supplied at the zonal level on paper bilties. It is also being said that, through paperwork alone, additional grain is being demanded from the government and the whole operation has been going on for the past two months.

There are indications of a major irregularity in the matter. The subject for investigation is therefore in which central system the records of hand-made bilties are being entered, and how they will later be reconciled with the Food Corporation of India's lifting records and the stock at ration shops.

In the supply of government grain, the importance of records is not limited to paper formalities. These records are what confirm that grain leaving the FCI reached the designated ration shop and was distributed from there to eligible beneficiaries.