Evaluation of Fair Price Shops in Delhi

Aims & Objectives: The objective of the evaluation study was to assess the quality of services provided by Fair Price Shops (FPS) in Delhi. The major objectives of the study were:

• To find out the micro level facts in terms of identification of beneficiaries and timeliness of supply.
• To study whether the beneficiaries have received the food grains according to the prescribed norms.
• To study the access and availability of the food, the supply chain mechanism and its effectiveness and efficiencies

Methodology: The study was based on primary household survey of beneficiaries as well as the FPS dealers. The target groups for the survey included (a) Priority Households (PR), Priority Household Sugar (PR-S) and households from Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) (b) Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealers. Besides this, the study also captured views of the officials involved in the programme. Survey of the above mentioned category of households/FPS dealer captured the micro level facts in terms of identification of beneficiaries and timeliness of supply. The study also answered the question that whether the beneficiaries had received the food grains according to the prescribed norms. This helped the research team to identify the anomalies between the prescribed norms and the real situation. Access and availability of the food, the supply chain mechanism and its effectiveness and efficiencies were inquired from the FPS dealers through interaction. The survey of the PR, PR-S and AAY cardholders was conducted with the help of structured questionnaire which addresses the above mentioned issues of the proposed study.

Findings: Delhi had a total 2254 fair price shops in the financial year 2016-17 catering to 1.94 million ration card holders. However, total ration card holders reduced from 3.69 million in 2001-02 to 1.94 million in 2016-17 whereas the total number of FPS reduced from 2975 to 2254 during the same period of time. The district-wise proportion of FPS to total FPS varied from 15.4 % in the North-East Delhi to 5.3% in New Delhi. Of the total lakhs ration card holders, about 86 percent belonged to PR category followed by 9.7 percent belonging to the PR-S category. Of the total beneficiary households, only 3.8 percent were categorized as AAY households. The survey emphasized on three main issues: FPS utilization; Perception of FPS; and Effectiveness of e-PoS.

In general, regarding quota allotments, 90% of the beneficiaries agreed that entries were made in the ration card in respect of items and their quantities and 95 percent respondents agreed that the entries were given on the ration card as per quota. However, it was also found that the FPS dealer provided wheat in place of rice free of cost and the rice was sold in the open market. In some shops, investigators also found that Atta was substituted for wheat. Regarding E-Pos, the study found that e-PoS biometric were not working properly. Although, the shop dealers were satisfied with the functioning of E-POS, the beneficiaries were not as they faced not only technical problems but found it to be time consuming.

Recommendation: The study recommended that a committee should be formed consisting of beneficiaries who should be responsible for monitoring. Regular FPS level meetings should be held in which the committee members, members from circle office and political representatives (ward members) of the area should attend. Further, the list of beneficiaries needs to be updated on a timely basis.