Question

The Government of India launched the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) with a focus on the poor in _______
1. June 1992
2. June 1997
3. Dec 2000
4. Dec 2002

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 2 : June 1997

The correct answer is June 1997.

• Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS):
  • In June 1997, the Government of India launched the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) with a focus on the poor.
  • Under the PDS, States were required to formulate and implement foolproof arrangements for the identification of the poor for delivery of food grains and for its distribution in a transparent and accountable manner. 
  • TPDS aims at providing food grains to people below the poverty line at highly subsidized prices from the PDS and food grains to people above the poverty line at much higher prices than the poverty line.
  • Thus, the TPDS adopted by the Government of India maintains the universal character of the PDS but adds a special focus on the people below the poverty line (known as BPL).

• Public Distribution System:
  • Public distribution of essential commodities was in existence in India during the inter-war period.
  • However, PDS, with its focus on the distribution of food grains in urban scarcity areas, had emanated from the critical food shortages of the 1960s.
  • As the national agricultural production had grown in the aftermath of the Green Revolution, the outreach of PDS was extended to tribal blocks and areas of the high incidence of poverty in the 1970s and 1980s.
• Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS):
  • The 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 poor life.
  • It covered 1775 blocks wherein area-specific programmes such as the Drought Prone Area Programme(DPAP), Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDP), Desert Development Programme (DDP) were being implemented.