Question

Identify the INCORRECT statement about Public Distribution System (PDS) in India.
1. Those living below poverty line get food grains at subsidised prices.
2. PDS has been abandoned in the country since 2007.
3. From 1997, PDS became TPDS for targeted consumers.
4. PDS was envisaged in 1967 as a price support programme to help consumers.

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 2 : PDS has been abandoned in the country since 2007.

PDS has been abandoned in the country since 2007 is an incorrect statement.

• Public distribution system (PDS) is an Indian food Security System established under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution.
• It evolved as a system of management of scarcity through the distribution of food grains at affordable prices.
• It is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and the State Governments.
• Under the PDS, presently the commodities namely wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene are being allocated to the States/UTs for distribution.
• Some states/UTs also distribute additional items of mass consumption through the PDS outlets such as pulses, edible oils, iodized salt, spices, etc.
• From the 1970s, it had evolved into a universal scheme for the distribution of subsidized food.

• Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS) was launched in June 1992 with a view to strengthen and streamline the PDS as well as to improve its reach in the far-flung, hilly, remote, and inaccessible areas where a substantial section of the underprivileged classes lives.
• In June 1997, the Government of India launched the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) with a focus on the poor.
• Under TPDS, beneficiaries were divided into two categories:
  • Households below the poverty line or BPL
  • Households above the poverty line or APL.