“The PDS system has often been criticised with reference to several drawbacks”. Explain any four such drawbacks.
Drawbacks of the PDS system are
(i) Although, government stocks are overflowing, there are starvation deaths, indicating prevalence of hunger due to problems in efficient distribution of
food grains.
(ii) Some food grains are rotting or being eaten by rats due to inadequacy of the storage facilities.
(iii) There is not adequate control over the Fair Price Shop dealers, who are indulging in many malpractices.
(iv) Nowadays, the TPDS follows a system of three different prices for three different categories of families, APL, BPL and Antyodaya.
The prices of food grains for APL families are not much different from the open market price, and thus there is no incentive for them to use the PDS, resulting in overflowing stocks at the shops. Thus, it can be concluded that PDS system has often been criticised with reference to several draw backs