Common Services Centres: 10% of ration shops double up as ‘common services centres’ | India News

NEW DELHI: At least one in every 10 ration shops in the country are also functioning as Common Services Centres (CSC), offering a range of services to people and many ration shop owners are earning Rs 50,000 per month. A ration shop owner, not providing common services, usually earns about Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 a month. While Jharkhand leads among states and Union territories with a maximum of 6,632 ration shops providing these services, in addition to the distribution of foodgrains under the National Food Security Act, Maharashtra and Gujarat have 6,574 and 6,188 such ration shops respectively.
Union food secretary Sanjeev Chopra said currently nearly 60,000 out of the 5.3 lakh ration shops are providing services to people like the CSCs. The services provided include applying for government documents, payment of utility bills and sale of insurance policies as well. On the impact of ration shops functioning as CSC as well, the food secretary said this is giving good results in Gujarat where the ration shop owners are earning almost Rs 50,000 per month.
Chopra said the government is exploring various options to make ration shops vibrant, modern and viable by enabling them to offer more products and services apart from running PDS operations. The food secretary said his ministry has written to states to allow ration shop dealers to keep non-PDS items such as FMCG products and many states have allowed them.