In a bid to plug loopholes in the Public Distribution System, the Food and Civil Supply department will computerise the database of about 1.36 crore BPL/Antodaya cardholders over the next three months, Food and Civil Supply minister Shyam Rajak said.

Details like number of family members, their age and gender and other related information of each ration card holders would ill be included in the database, Rajak told reporters here.

The pilot projects with regard to digitisation of all BPL/Antodaya card holders would be launched from Patna and Nalanda districts soon, he said.

The state government undertaking Beltron will provide computers at all 534 blocks and data entry operators would be recruited for the purpose of maintaining records, Rajak said.

To ensure transparency in the supply chain management, godowns of FCI and SFC would also be computerised with details of stock in each godown while PDS retailers will be intimated through SMSs about quantity of grains being sent to them, he said.

The ration card holders and members of the PDS monitoring committees too will be intimated by SMSs about the quantity of foodgrains being transported for distribution.

It has also been proposed to install CCTV at the main godowns of the SFC to monitor lifting of foodgrains for PDS retailers, Rajak said.