In order to create single unified information system, the Delhi state civil supplies corporation has launched an electronic public distribution supply chain management (ePDSCM) portal. The portal was inaugurated by the Minister of food, supplies and consumer affairs Haroon Yusuf at ePDS operation centre in Delhi on Tuesday.

Through the portal, ration card holders wishing an SMS intimation of the dispatch of ration in any nearby fair price shops (FPS) can register their mobile number at the web link http://164.100.72.169/frmregistration.aspx. The SMS can be used to enquire about the commodity, truck number, or even the date and time the commodity was dispatched.

In all, there are around 33,36,749 ration card holders in Delhi who avail their ration from fair price shops.

Presently the portal gives information regarding the sugar off take, however, as minister Haroon Yusuf said that “the system will also be extended to the supply of wheat and rice from Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) godowns to the FPSs soon.”

On various benefits to the department of food and supplies, the system is capable of generating reports at various levels such as data entry operator, inspector, food supply officer so on and so forth and reflects the pendency in terms of days.

The portal, whose long term software maintenance is handled by the national informatics centre (NIC), can be accessed through http://epds.nic.in/nic-scbpdsDEL/epds and includes various modules like ration card management, allocation, FCI module, SMS and grievance redressal. It further aims to eliminate inclusion and exclusion of errors and improve internal administrative efficiency.

A uniqueness attached with the system is that it will be linked with the unique identification authority (UIDAI)-issued Aadhar number, which will help the card holder in tracking the amount, date and time of dispatches of a particular commodity to the nearby FPSs. Dharam Pal, secretary-cum-commissioner, food and supplies said that the portal will possibly be integrated with the UIDAI database.

There are more than seventy food supply officers (FPOs) in Delhi who, according to the minister, have been trained to upgrade and modernise to become more people friendly and will help spread awareness about the portal.