Public Distribution of Food grains has always been an integral part of any State's overall food policy. It has been evolved to reach the urban as well as the rural population in order to protect the consumers from the fluctuating and escalating price syndrome. TETRAPDS (Targeted Efficient Transparent Rationing and Allocation Public Distribution System) developed by NIC, Kerala is a comprehensive package for automating the activities of the Taluk Supply Offices, District Supply Offices and Commissionerate of Civil Supplies to improve the efficiency of the public Distribution system and enable the department to provide better services and reduce corruption.

The Computerisation activities in Civil Supplies department began in 2002 with the digitization of sixty four lakhs ration cards. There are 69 Taluk Supply Offices (TSO) /City Rationing Offices (CRO) in the State. The client-server application was used for issuing ration cards in bilingual format in each TSO/CRO. For supporting the local languages, ISM software was incorporated in the application.

The renewal process of these ration cards, were initiated in the year 2007-2008. For the renewal purpose, datasheets generated from the databases were distributed to the citizens for making necessary changes and the same were updated in the databases. The data with local language font in the databases was converted into Unicode. Sixty nine lakh renewed laminated ration cards with photo of the owner of the ration card and bar code were printed and issued in 2009.

Central Ration Card Database The Civil Supplies Department, Government of Kerala has created one of the largest Central databases in the State with data of around 70 lakh ration cardholders and around 3 Crore family members. The database covers almost 90% of the population in the state of Kerala. The database is available in the State Data Center with facility to access the same from anywhere in the state through Internet or KSWAN. All the TSOs/CROs and the Commissionerate of Civil Supplies are networked through KSWAN and the transactions are monitored through the Central Server. The Central data is synchronized online with the distributed rationcard databases of TSOs/CROs. In short, the latest status of the ration cardholders and their family members will be available in the Central database, which could be accessed online from anywhere.

Government is able to deliver better web enabled citizen centric services, G2G and G2B services from the Central database by effective usage of Information Technology. The consolidation also helps generate MIS reports, share the data with other government departments, national authorities and securely allow citizen access to their respective data.

Ration Card Verification Service This database can be made use for providing better and efficient services to the citizens and various departments. The ration card holders or their family members provide the copy of the ration card to various agencies, government and private, for availing various services like, new electricity connection, water connection, building permit, LPG connection, telephone/mobile connection etc. It is proposed to provide the verification service of the ration cards furnished by the applicant electronically. This will considerably reduce the verification time by the agencies concerned and delay in providing the services and reduce corruption. Ajith Brahmanandan Technical Director, Kerala ajithb@nic.in Shatti Raj Senior Systems Analyst, Kerala shattiraj@nic.in

The three main modules of TETRAPDS application are

 Ration Card Management System (RCMS 4.0): RCMS 4.0 is a client-server application which gives a work flow based solution for all citizen services which include issue of new ration cards, issue of surrender and reduction certificates, addition and deletion of members in the card, splitting of ration cards etc. The application is implemented in all 69 TSOs/CROs in the state.

 Allocation 2.0: Allocation of commodities is a web based workflow-based solution for allocating food grains from the TSOs based on the theoretical requirement of the dealers. Inspection by authorities and Monitoring of Permits and licenses are also part of Allocation. It is the complete computerization of activities from the lifting of food grains from FCI depots to the point of issue of commodities to ration card holders. The entire activities involved are tracked through a centralized system. Facilities for online calculation of allotment under different schemes, online generation of Authority for FCI, Authority list for wholesale dealers and generation of proceedings for TSOs are incorporated in the application.

The data entered at different locations are analysed and consolidated to provide an e-Governance solution for effective decision making and monitoring the progress of monthly allotment, lifting, off take and distribution of essential commodities under various schemes.

 Website of Civil Supplies Department: A web site www.civilsupplieskerala.gov.in is hosted to provide information to the people about the department, Public Distribution system, stock details of dealers and links to websites of its related offices. It is a portal-cum-web enabled monitoring system for the following applications:

  • Inspection Monitoring Software: Application for monitoring the daily inspections carried out by the Rationing Inspectors on ARDs. Implemented for all TSOs and DSOs. State level reports are generated depicting the Inspections conducted, irregularities detected and action taken on the erring dealers.
  • Web based Offtake software: For entering the TSO level weekly stock details of wholesale and Retail dealers. Verification of records done by officials of District Supply Offices. State level reports displaying the lifting details from FCI and stock details of Fair price shops and wholesale dealers are generated.
  • Web based DCB software: For entering the TSO level Demand Collection and Balance details. State level, district level reports generated for displaying the DCB details.
  • Allotment of Food grains: For entering the district wise allotment of food grains, sugar and kerosene.

The central database of Ration Cards and effective usage of Information Technology will result in delivering better citizen centric services by the Government. All the services related to Ration Card Transactions in the Civil Supplies department will be provided through electronic means. The e-Services will dramatically change the way services are provided today. The public will be able to access these services round-the-clock, all seven days of the week.

For further information, contact: State Informatics Officer, Kerala sio-ker@nic.in Edited by: R. Gayatri