The full form of TPDS is Targeted Public Distribution System. It was started in June 1997 by the government of India. It paid attention mainly to the poor people. Under the TDPS, each state has arranged and delivered food grains for the poor. Under this scheme, 6 crores of people were benefited. Each year, 72 tonnes of food grains were provided to the poor. The food grains were allocated according to the economic status of the people. The supply of grains to the BPL family is higher compared to the APL family.
In June 1997 the state government only fixed the final price for the products for wholesalers, retailers, transport services, and for tax. They also put in a request that the rate variation not be more than 50 paise. But in 2001 the government would be free from the restriction of 50 paise per kg.
1. below the poverty line people
2. above poverty line people
There are three roles for the central government
1. They check the quantity of food grain.
2. Allocate the food grains for each state according to their needs.
3. Make an arrangement to transport the food grains to each state.
1. The state government receives the food grains and distributes them to each state .
2. The district supervisor will find out who is eligible.
3. Distribute the food grains through ration cards.
There are lots of benefits to TPDS such as
1. It provides food to all the people by fixing margin prices comparatively less than the shop which reduces the financial stress of poor people.
2. The large quantity of food stored during the available season helped to distribute the food grains throughout the year.
There is a lot of criticism of TPDS
The main issue was targeting which means the central and state governments have to focus on the needy person. In some cases, they are not getting a proper identification of people's financial status. The targeting issues were further divided into two issues
1. Conceptual issues
2. Operational issues
The major issue was to find out the person who is eligible to apply for TPDS. The term "eligible person" refers to a person who is below the official poverty line. The official poverty line represents the below-poverty-line people.
There are many issues in the operational function. The major issue in many states is finding out the eligible person has been carried out in a confused manner
1. The products were leaked and sold to others at a high rate.
2. The products were not distributed at the correct time in ration shops.
3. The higher level people also got the products in a shallow range.
4. Product distribution will be distracted due to gathering large people.
The targeted public distribution system is joined together with the federal government, state government, or territory government. The purchasing cost of a product was given by the central government only. One more process is to identify the eligible person and issue a ration card to them and also monitor the fair price shops.
The central government buys bulk products from farmers from different states and distributes them to the states. the states buy it and deliver it to the fair price shop then finally it reached the beneficiary.
The advantage of TPDS is to stabilise the rate of food grains at an affordable price range. it also reduces the hunger and famine of a people by supplying enormous quantities of food
The TPDS plays a vital role in distributing food grains all throughout the country. There are lots of people who have benefited from this scheme. Nowadays, the Aadhar card is linked with the Fair Shops card in order to reduce leakage and achieve better targeting.
The main aim of TPDS is to distribute food grains to all, especially to poor people.
The TPDS was started in June 1997.
The BPL stands for Below the Poverty Line.
The two major issues in TPDS are
1. conceptual issues
2. operating issues
The central government undertakes the TPDS scheme.