Public Distribution System by Self Help Groups in Bihar

Ensuring food security through PDS by Village Organizations of SHGs
(Gaya, Khagaria, and Purnia)

By

Manoj Kumar
Consultant, PDS-SD
Mob. +91-74881-16811
E-mail : manojirmaprm24@gmail.com

Monthly Report (June’2012)

Submitted to
Smt. Archana Tiwari,
SPM - SD

In continuation of the assignment to capacitate VOs run and manage PDS effectively

Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) – JEEVIKA
Vidyut Bhawan-II, Bailey Road,Patna -800021,

www.brlp.in

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

1. Agenda points for the month of June’2012 ………………………………… 2

2. Summary of interactions/activities/works done in June’2012 ……………….. 3

3. Progress in works as per agenda for the month …………………………4

4. List of visited Village Organizations ……………………………………5

5. Contents of hand holding supports …………………………………………….6

6. Feedbacks from the field ………………………………………………………7

7. Problem solving ………………………………………………………………..8

8. Liaising with Govt. Offices/Officials …………………………………………..9

9. Suggestions and Way forward ………………………………………………….9

10. Constraints ………………………………………………………………..……10

11. Checklist for interaction with VOs and members ……………………………....11

12. List of abbreviations ………………………………………………………….....12

1

Manoj Kumar, manojirmaprm24@gmail.com

1.0 Agenda points for the month of June’2012 : After discussions in the
SPMU in the beginning of the month of June and in subsequent communications following agenda
points were agreed upon for the month :

(a.) Meeting officials :
(i) Dept. of civil supplies in Patna – current and former officials
(ii) Dist. Supply office – current officials
(iii) Block supply offices
(iv) Bihar State Food Corporation
(v) Food Corporation of India
(vi) District Collectorate – DM/SDO
(vii) Dealers of PDS
(viii) JEEVIKA staff

(b.) Collecting appropriate govt. orders and other related documents
(c.) Visiting Village Organisations and interacting with members
(d.) Conducting VOs’ informal training
(e.) Knowledge sharing with VOs
(f.) Works on process guidelines

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2.0 Summary of interactions/activities/works done in June'2012

Sr.
No. Date Place Persons Activities
June 1 &
1 2 SPMU,Patna SPM-SD Feedback and discussions
Sojo Mitra, Mob.
+9193867-31729
sojamitra@gmail.com,
2 Jun-04 BSFC Patna bsfcpatna.food@gmail.com Understanding the role of BSFC in the PDS
Durgesh Nandan,Former Understanding different stages of the PDS
Vishweshwaraiya ADM-Supply system
3 Jun-05 Bhavan Mob : +9194310-46535
4 Jun-06 FCI Office Patna SK Mundotiya,AGM Collecting informations,meeting with officials.
SP Panda,AGM-distribution
Mob: + 91-99559-97110,
5 Jun-07 FCI Office Patna Email:satya.fc1@gmail.com Understanding the role of FCI in the PDS
Submitting May's reports and expense details.
6 Jun-08 SPMU & FCI SPM-SD,OA Collecting documents from FCI
1.Visit to V.Os ( Bachauta,Bhadas,Rampur
Alouli,Icharua, Ramgan,Gangore)
JEEVIKA staff (CC,AC, 2.Interaction with VO members
BPMs,DPM,YPs),DM 3.Training V.Os on various topics
,DSO, 4.Meetiting with DM ,SDO and DSO and
SDO(Subhash Chandra taking up issues with them
June 09 - ,Mob: +91-94731- 5.Going through all the official documents
7 21 Khagaria & Alouli 91422),MO etc. related with PDS at JEEVIKA office
June 22-
8 25 SPMU,Patna SPM-SD Feedback and discussions.
Durgesh Nandan,Former 1. Consultation on process guidelines
Vishweshwaraiya ADM-Supply 2.Feedback on process guidelines
9 Jun-26 Bhavan Mob : +9194310-46535 3.Understanding value chains of PDS
1.Understanding PDS system in totality in
prolonged
discussions of more than 4 hours .Discussions
to be continued further
2.Essential Commodity Act-1955
Rationing Office Alok Kumar Sinha ,ADSO 3.Bihar Govt's orders
10 Jun-27 ,Patna Mob: +91-99734-36909 4.Coupon system
1.Visit to V.Os of Bodhgaya and Barachatti
2.Resolving the issue of conflict in Bhadeya
VO with intervention from the police of
Barachatti PS.
3.Training V.Os on various topics
4.Meetiting withSDO and DSO and taking up
issues with them
June 28 - Gaya,Bodhgaya,Dobhi, DSO,Barachatti SI,SD-Mgr, 5.Attending opening up ceremony of Nutrition
11 30 Barachatti and other JEEVIKA staff . centre in Pandhara village of Bodhgaya
3


3.0 Progress in works as per agenda for the month
(i) Process Guidelines : June was more towards unraveling the complicated system of PDS
through interactions with various govt. officials of different departments, collecting
relevant informations /documents /orders and organizing them in the course of our efforts
to make the entire thing available to members, Jeevika staff and others in simple to
understand and easy to use formats. This was felt that it would take time to understand
each and every legitimate process .So, the idea of working on finishing the process
guidelines was put on hold for the time being.

(ii) Knowledge Sharing: The consultant also felt that knowledge sharing has to be started as
part of a continuous process. This was more important seeing changes taking place at very
fast pace. Accordingly, in every VO visits this was initiated and informal knowledge
sharing was done with focus more towards making members understand nuances of
process.

(iii) Collection of authentic Informations/documents/reading materials : In efforts to collect
authentic informations regarding PDS and it’s functioning in Bihar the consultant visited
several relevant websites .Major authentic informations were gathered from govt. websites
of the dept. of civil supplies, FCI, and dist. headquarters. The original orders of the PDS
and Wadhwa Committee’s reports were major findings out of searches through secondary
sources.A book on “Bihar Control Orders” by Ramesh Kumar Agrawal and V.K.Malhotra
published by Malhotra Brothers was also found in the market.This book is a compendium
of all orders with regards to PDS in Bihar. These relevant documents /reports/book as
gathered in the month can be summarized as follows :

a. Wadhwa Committee Report on PDS in Bihar
b. Bihar Control Orders by Ramesh Kumar Agrawal & V.K.Malhotra
,publication of Malhotra Brothers
c. PDS Control-2001
d. Bihar Ration Coupon Scheme-2006
e. Bihar Kerosene Coupon Scheme-2006
f. A report on Performance Evaluation of TPDS by the Planning Commission
of India -2005

All the above documents are being studied by the consultant to understand basic tenets of the
policy.

To further understand issues in implementation, this month officials (current and former ones) of Bihar
State Food Corporation (BSFC) , Food Corporation of India (FCI),Dept. of Civil Supplies were also
contacted and long sessions of discussions were held with them at individual level.

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Some of officials who were contacted and involved in discussions are as follows :

Institutions Persons and their Learnings
details
Mr.Satya Prakash  It’s role is to procure grains and store them
Panda,  BSFC lifts from FCI on payment for
AGM (Distribution), distribution under various schemes
Mob. No. +91-99559-  Keeps stock for next 2 months
97110; E-mail :  Allocation of grains is valid for 50 days
Food Corporation satya.fc1@gmail.com  FCI godowns are in 31 districts of Bihar
of India (FCI)  There are 10 Area Offices (AO) of FCI in
Mr. S.K.Mundotiya, Bihar .Area Manager looks after AOs.
AGM  Grievances can be addressed to the
Mob. +91-99559- concerned AOs
96975  Lifting by BSFC is not done in scheduled
way.
Mr.Sojo Mitra,GM  BSFC is responsible for release of grains
Bihar State Food Mob. +91-93867- upon payment under coupon scheme
Corporation 31729  Stock registers and sale registers have to be
(BSFC) maintained at PDS level

Mr.Durgesh Nandan
Former ADM-Supply
Mob. +91-94310-
46535  Allotment of PDS to SHGs
Mr.Alok Kumar Sinha  Committee to a lot PDS
ADSO,Rationing  Different levels of PDS delivery channel
Dept. of Civil
Office ,Patna  EC act-1955,Bihar govt. coupon orders of
Supplies
Mob. + 91-99734- 2006
36909
E-mail:
aloksinha308@gmail.c
om

4.0 List of Village Organisations visited and hand-holding supports
provided with : During the month of June’2012 the maximum efforts were done to visit as
many VOs as could be done and interact with members . Initially this was planned to visit all the three
dist. of Gaya, Khagaria,and Purnia .But,as the interaction started with members and issues started to be
identified this was redesigned to spend quality time with members during the interactive meetings and
in most of cases meetings lasted more than 4 hours. Also, distance between VOs forced us to get
qualitative rather than quantitative. This was rare when 2 VOs could be visited in a day for multiple
reasons.

In the meetings with members the consultant’s efforts were initially to observe discipline,level of their
understanding of PDS,SHGs,and their own roles and responsibilities.Towards the middle of the
meetings the consultant would make it interactive and the latter part of the meetings were more about
knowledge sharing,hand holding support,capacity building, and basic training.

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Following is the list of VOs that were touched upon :

Sr.
No. VOs Village Block Distt.
1 Deepak North Maarar Khagaria Khagaria
2 Bandhan Mehsodi Khagaria Khagaria
Rampur
3 Astha Alauli Alauli Khagaria
4 Aadarsh Icharua Alauli Khagaria
Nari
5 Shakti Bachauta Khagaria Khagaria
6 Tulsi Bachauta Khagaria Khagaria
7 Sriseeta Mahkar Dobhi Gaya
8 Kamal Bhadeya Barachatti Gaya
9 Annapurna Shekhwada Bodhgaya Gaya
10 Khushi Mankoshi Bodhgaya Gaya

5.0 Contents of Hand-holding support
During the interaction with VO members the consultant discussed and provided hand holding support
through making members aware on various issues, role plays, and basic exercises.

(i) Internal communication : This was observed that PDS committee members and office
bearers of the VOs are not aware of their own roles and responsibilities.They were found
completely unaware what have been written in the minute .

So ,whichever VO consultant visited this was emphasized that Book Keeper must read out
contents of the minute to members present in the meeting.Members were explained the
following :
 Importance of knowing roles and responsibilities of different committee members
 Purpose of the minute and it’s importance
 How to write minute and read it out to members
 How to mark attendances of members ? Importance of attendances from legal points of
view.
 How to put points before govt. officials?
(ii) Financial Transactions : Members were educated about financial transactions.Following
contents were touched upon in details during interactions with them :
 Problems in doing transactions in cash
 What’s cheque and draft ? Benefits of doing transactions through these instruments
 Explaining members officials’ points of view of resisting to do transactions through
cheques and drafts

(iii) Delivery channels of PDS: VO’s executive members who were present during
consultant’s visit to respective VOs were explained the entire delivery channels of the PDS
system right from FCI to VO level.

(iv) Programme details : PDS related communications were done to members .This includes :
 Coupon related informations – How to get coupons? How to get duplicate coupons?
Importance of coupon numbers /bar coding. Significance of
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 Ration Cards and different schemes – How to get ration cards from where ?
Antyodaya/Annapurna schemes .
 Technical aspects of ration/kerosene - volume expansion/contraction in kerosene oil
because of rise/fall in temperature thereby resulting in loss when lifted in the afternoon
. Weight loss in ration during carriage .Spoilage,Samples of ration etc.

(v) FPS Management : VO’s executive committee members were communicated about
management of FPS properly .Accordingly, the consultant touched upon the following
issues :
 Maintenance of book-keeping/accounts keeping
 Maintenance of stock registers in the prescribed formats
 Display of different notice boards
 Display of beneficiaries’ names
 Display of samples of ration
 Constitution of the vigilance committee
 Display of registered holidays

6.0 Feedbacks from the field and challenges ahead : The feedback from the
field could be listed down as under:

(i) List of Beneficiaries in PDS - Listing of beneficiaries with VOs have not been done
properly and as per rules.In most of VOs beneficiaries of the FPS as run under PDS are
non-members of VOs.

VO’s rules of federating SHGs and PDS rules of preparing list of beneficiaries for an FPS
are incongruent with each other which is the main reason for such issues coming up

(ii) Non-standardization – There is big issue of standardization in book-keeping, accounts-
keeping, inventory management , and distribution of items .

Non standardization poses a big threat to VOs’ run PDS as one can see scopes for
manipulations.

Major challenge in standardizing the system at VOs’ level could be found in it’s costing
and cost’s distribution over members as proposed in PDS orders of the govt.

(iii) Non-compliances : Compliance norms as per Public Distribution System Orders/Act are
not being practised out of ignorance/unawareness.

Common non-compliances could be listed as follows :
 Not signing coupons by members
 Non-maintenanace of coupon registers
 Not making entries of coupon no. and ration in cards and registers
 Non-verification of coupon with
 FPS norms of displaying names of beneficiaries, list of items & their rates,food
calendars,

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 Non-updation of stock registers as on date of distribution and lifting of ration &
kerosene.Updation done on convenient time and date.
 Vigilance committee not formed at VO level (on part of govt.)

(iv) Non-issue of Ration Cards : In many VOs ,SHG members have not been issued ration
cards. The reason of this varies from VO to VO .Some common reasons could be listed on
the basis of interaction with members :
 Internal politics at village level
 Gram Sabha (GS)/Panchayat not showing interest
 Unawareness about process
 Govt. officials bound to follow long process of taking socio-economic data into
account
(v) Non-receipt of coupons: VO members in some cases either don’t get coupons or get less
no. of coupons. As members don’t know how to lodge complaint against this they just
suffer.
(vi) Communication issues : There is no proper and direct channel of communication between
the block supply office and VOs. A copy of any official letter issued from the BSO is sent
to the dealers association ,but, not to VOs. Because of this communication gap members
fail to know the exact timing of depositing the amount and lifting items.This is more
prominent in Khagaria dist.

7.0 Problem Resolving : The consultant in his limited capacity made sincere efforts to
resolve issues on the field. However, running PDS by women institutions at the grass root level being a
novel and innovative concept ,sustained efforts have to be done at various level over the period of time
particularly on part of the implementing agency.

Below are two most prominent examples of some efforts made to resolve issues :

(I) Field issues in Gaya - Towards the end of June and beginning of July the consultant tried
to resolve a problem in Bhadeya VO of Barachatti block of Gaya in close association with
the Dist. Manager-SD.

In Bhadeya ,a villager Mr.Shahnawaz Khan had misbehaved with the president of Kamal
VO and damaged the maintenance registers kept inside FPS.In protest of this VO’s
members had lodged a formal complaint with the Barachatti police station.The level of
tension was very high and members were demotivated to continue the FPS.

We interacted with members and among discussing several other things related with PDS
we motivated them to continue running FPS and how to deal with such uncalled for
situations. Later on we took the police to the village and met with parents of Mr.Shanawaz
Khan as symbol of showing solidarity with VO members.The police warned them of dire
consequences in case such incidents are repeated.However,we came to learn that someone
relative (Mr.P.K.Yadav) of the VO's president Mrs.Taravati Devi is associated with Naxals
and there has been a cold war between Shahnawaz and Mrs.Taravati Devi's families for
long time.I personally understand that the tantrums and outbursts of Mr.Shahnawaz Khan
could be rooted in such background of pro-longed animosity of two
families.Accordingly,this was suggested to the state office to tread cautiously in this
regard.

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(II) Formal Communication issues in Khagaria – While perusing various documents of PDS
in DPCU we noticed that the formal communications from block supply office is not done
with VOs .The communication is done with dist/block dealers association. But, VOs are
not part of these associations. Thus, by default there is no formal link of communication
with VOs. Because of this VOs often fail to comply with deadlines and members have to
make visits to block supply offices to have updates regarding ration/kerosene and deposit
of the amount.

The consultant brought this in the notice of the SPMU and the DPCU and suggested to
make a formal request to the DM/DSO to send a copy of the official communication either
to the JEEVIKA office at block/dist. level or VOs directly.

8.0 Liaising with Govt. Offices : The consultant visited concerned govt. offices in the
district of Gaya and Khagaria ,and took up various PDS issues with officials in efforts to look for
resolution of them and smooth running of PDS by women.

District Officials/Offices Issues discussed Responses/Assurancces
 Vacancies of FPS in  We were informed that for the
the dist. last 2 months no allotment has
 Allotment of FPS in been done and a new list of
Jhikatiya and vacancies have to prepared
Kormahwa villages of based on proper delimitation of
Bodhgaya. villages.
 Correction in the list  DSO will personally look into
of beneficiaries. issues of coupons and red cards..
Gaya SDO/DSO  Irregularities in issue
of coupons .  We were assured that the supply
 Non-availability of office will make proper
red cards. correction in beneficiaries’ list
 Organising a upon bringing VO-wise list in
workshop for VOs in the notice.
the month of July.  The DSO agreed to give basic
training in the workshop.

 Formal  The DM assured us to have a
Communication with detailed discussion over various
VOs /JEEVIKA issues of PDS and asked for list
 Improper listing of of problems to redress them
beneficiaries  The DSO also asked to have
 Non-issue of coupons discussions separately and asked
Khagaria DM/SDO/DSO
and ration cards for VO wise list of issues .
 Weight/volume loss of  The DSO also asked to hand
ration/kerosene him over VO wise list of
 Redressal of beneficiaries .
complaints

9.0 Suggestions and Way Forward: The consultant proposes the work plan as under:
(I) Training of VOs - VOs have continuously and regularly to be trained on FPS management
,procurement & distribution of ration/kerosene, accounts/books/records-keeping, financial literacy,
regulatory compliances, coupons’ management, handling issues of ration cards/coupons, and problem
solving at the field level as well as at the govt. officials level.
9


Members are also to be trained in ensuring democracies in internal decision making process and every
member has to be involved in it.

To ward off inefficiencies /slackness/rent-seeking/chances of misappropriation it is suggested to adopt
the policy of rotation in holding the offices of the FPS/VOs.

(II) Establishing a communication network – VOs have to be in proper communication network with
the concerned govt. offices so that members could directly access all kind of updated informations on
real time and could take appropriate decisions accordingly.

There has to be feedback mechanism system too under this communication network so that in case of
any issues /problems members could approach the concerned officials directly and get their grievances
redressed.

VOs are also to be explained the time to time changes in policies on regular basis. JEEVIKA has to
provide hand holding support in this regard over the period of time.

(III ) Liaising with Govt. Offices – As the concept of PDS being run by SHGs is totally novel, liaising
with concerned govt. offices is the need of the hour.

JEEVIKA ,in it’s facilitating role ,has to make sure that there is frequent interactions of members with
concerned govt. officials so that pragmatism could prevail and the mutual mistrust vanishes. Therefore,
workshops have to be conducted on regular basis.

(IV) Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E ) - There has to be performance parameters at the FPS level
and at the facilitating level for CCs /ACs .For this purpose, a proper monitoring and evaluation system
has to be designed and put in place . Based on M & E reports corrective steps could be taken on time.
This will help in streamlining PDS running by VOs.

(V) Developing a robust MIS - It’s very necessary to stay updated on procurement/distribution of
rations/kerosene by VOs on time, coupons/ration cards’ issuance, proper verification/updation of
beneficiaries and other issues in managing FPS. For this purpose there has to be a relevant MIS
developed so that desired results are not missed out because of lack of interventions in time.

10.0 Constraints : The consultant did experience constraints in his works .These are as
follows :

(i) Maintaining co-ordination : The dist. team as well as block team are burdened with host of other
works under different themes.PDS occupies just a small part in their roles and responsibilities.
Additionally, this is the most complicated programme of the govt. where multiple govt. offices/dept.
are involved at different levels of the delivery channel. So, it’s very difficult to accord priorities to PDS
on part of the DPCU and BPIU particularly when they have multiple tasks in hand. Because of this the
consultant has to struggle to strike co-ordination with the dist./block teams. Without the
accompaniment of someone from the local level ,it’s very difficult for members to interact with the
stranger that the consultant is for them at least for the first time.

This does impact the pace of VOs visits by the consultant.

(ii) Communications – The formal channel of communication (e-mails/letters of guidance/instructions)
is very scantly used by SPMU/DPCU/BPIU to communicate with the consultant. The verbal
communications have limitations of not to be re-produced or referred to in case of

10


confusions/doubts/clarifications which, thus, leaves many issues on the ground open to explanations as
per consultant’s own understanding . This limits the capacities of the consultant to go an extra mile
while interacting with govt. officials and members in course of dealing with field based issues.

The consultant does understand that his role is mainly suggestive and hand holding in nature , and
execution/implementation is completely to be done by the JEEVIKA team at the grass root level.

(iii) Inter- VOs’ distances – The districts allotted to the consultant are far away from each other. Even
within the same district the distance between any two VOs running PDS is hardly less than 20 KMs.
This does affect consultant’s capacity to visit VOs and conduct proper meetings to understand issues
thoroughly.

(iv) Attendance of VO members – It’s generally difficult to attend all VOs’ meetings on scheduled
dates. So, the consultant through the concerned CC/AC convinces members to convene a meeting to
interact with him. However, because of their own pre-scheduled works members come in very low
number to attend the meeting. This has the potential to skew the findings and affect the resolution of
issues.

In some VOs, where the consultant attended their scheduled general meeting this was also found that
attendance was hardly more than 60% with exception at Shekhwada .

(V) Non-availability of Govt. Officials – It’s not easy to catch hold of govt. officials in their offices
all because of their busy schedules. This does consume time and energy. In some cases ,the consultant
has to return from the govt. offices without meeting with them.

In some case this was found that they try to evade . They give us assurances ,but, not supported with
actions. This also limits consultant’s capacity to maintain the pace and efficiency.

11.0 Checklist for interaction with VOs and members
a. VO management :
 If the democratic principles are being followed in internal affairs
 If communication is two way – (i) from office bearers to members
(ii) from JEEVIKA to VO
 If the communication is proper – do SHG representatives communicate decisions
being taken in the VO’s executive committee meeting to rest of SHG members
b. FPS management :
 Books/accounts /records keeping .Issue of standardization
 Display of boards and other regulatory requirements
 Constitution of vigilance committee
 Surplus generations
c. Awareness :
 Roles and responsibilities
 Documentations required
 Process of getting ration/kerosene
 Coupons/ration cards

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12.0 List of Abbreviations : Following abbreviations have been used at appropriate
location in the report.

AC Area Co-ordinator

ADM Assistant District Magistrate

ADSO Assistatnt District Supply Officer

AGM Assistant General Manager

BK Book Keeper

BPIU Block Project Implementing Unit (Jeevika)

BPM Block Project Manager (Jeevika)

BSFC Bihar State Food Corporation

BSO Block Supply Office

CC Community Co-ordinator

CM Community Mobiliser

DPCU District Project Co-ordinating Unit (Jeevika)

DPM District Project Manager (Jeevika)

DSO District Supply Officer

FPS Fair Price Shops

GS Gram Sabha

JLG Joint Liability Group

M & E Monitoring and Evaluation

MIS Management Information System

MO Marketing Officer

PDS Public Distribution System

SHG Self Help Group

SPMU State Project Management Unit (Jeevika)

VO Village Organization

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