PATNA: "I am disappointed to find no further progress in the public distribution system (PDS) in the state", says noted development economist Jean Dreze in a letter addressed to the Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. In a letter to CM Nitish Kumar on Monday Dreze said: "As you know, we have been watching the PDS in Bihar with keen interest. We were impressed with the rapid improvements that took place until 2014, but disappointed to find no evidence of further progress in our most recent survey in June 2016".
"We are writing to share our apprehensions about the imposition of points of sale (PoS) machines in the PDS, and also about replacing food with cash", says Dreze who is associated with Ranchi university and the Delhi School of Economics in a letter to CM. Dreze a close colleague of Amartya Sen has done most of his work is concerned with hunger, poverty, education, health and other aspects of social policy.
The letter further said, "we hear that the central government is putting pressure on state governments to explore two alternatives to the PDS: switch to cash, or deploy Aadhaar-enabled machines at ration shops. In response to this pressure, several state governments have started using PoS machines". "The experience of these states (especially Rajasthan and Jharkhand) with PoS machines is very negative. On the one hand, PoS machines fail to address the main source of corruption, which is quantity fraud (dealers give people less than their full entitlements) rather than identity fraud", he feels.
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