The Chhattisgarh government plans to send SMS alerts about availability and supply of food to beneficiaries of the subsidized public distribution system (PDS). The government will provide 35 kg of rice in a month to each family at the rate of Rs 3 per kg under the scheme.
To get the alerts, the poor families will have to register details of their mobile phones at the website of the food and civil supplies department at http://cg.nic.in/khadya/. When the food is available at the local distribution center, SMS alerts will be sent out to families registered.
The alerts would also be given out through the Internet at the PDS website. The government is also planning to set up toll-free call centers across the state to take up supply related complaints of PDS beneficiaries immediately and deliver reply to them in time-bound banner on their telephones. The SMS facility, Internet updates and call center will start functioning from Jan 26, the Indian Republic Day.
Chhattisgarh is the first state of the country to have such high-tech system. I feel glad that the poor people of Chhattisgarh has cell phones even though they do not have enough money to buy their meals. The government officials are unclear how many of such families actually own mobile phones. But all they want is to roll out the functionality and be the first, sounds good!
[via yahoo news]
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