Government in favour of scrapping PDS after successful Haryana and Puducherry experiments

The central government, encouraged by the promising results from Haryana and Puducherry, may scrap the Public Distribution System (PDS) of food and essential items in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.

PM Modi said this during an interaction with BJP MPs from Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh at his residence.

The government instead would transfer the money directly into beneficiaries’ accounts.

Haryana and Puducherry have closed their PDS and have started to transfer the money directly into the accounts of the people. PM Modi lauded these states for this and said, “this model may be implemented in other states as well”.

PDS scheme is run jointly by central and state governments. Under this, the central government-owned Food Corporation of India distributes essential items such as rice, wheat, kerosene, sugar through fair price shops.

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In the meeting, PM Modi also emphasised on continuing the “benefit chain” of GST and urged small traders to register themselves with the new tax regime.