The government will conduct a pilot study to improve the viability of Fair Price Shops (FPS), the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said in a release.
Aiming to improve the viability of 60 FPS, this study is being organised across Hyderabad, Ghaziabad, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.
The Ministry said, the central government, is providing handholding assistance to these FPS shops by partnering with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for the provision of working capital and B2B online wholesale aggregators for the sale of non-PDS items with a focus on nutritional items.
The states of the respective cities have been given the leadership position to conduct the study, as per the ministry.
Fair Price Shops (FPS) are government-regulated shops that sell essential commodities to ration card holders at subsidized prices. These shops are also known as ration shops.
As part of efforts to improve the viability of FPSs, Government of India has taken various initiatives and requested all State and UT Governments to implement additional services at the FPSs, including Common Service Centre (CSC) services, banking services through tie-up with banks and corporate banking correspondents, banking and citizen-centric services of India Post Payment Bank (IPPB), retail sale of small LPG cylinders of 5 kg and sale of other commodities or general store items etc.
The government is exploring possibilities of conducting capacity-building programs or short-term skill development courses to boost the confidence of FPS owners and equip them with the essential entrepreneurship skills required for venturing into new business avenues, as per the Ministry.
These courses will be developed with the help of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
In addition, the central government has also advised the states and UTs to display information boards showing beneficiary’s rights and integrate weighing scale with electronic Point of Sales (ePoS) devices at all FPSs and explore the feasibility of installation of CCTV cameras at all FPSs.
The Public Distribution System (PDS) is jointly operated by the Central and State/UT Governments.
